VOA标准英语2011--US Women Can't Close the Pay Gap

March is Women's History Month in the United States, an opportunity to examine how far women have come and the areas where there is still work to be done. One of these areas is employment and income, according to a recent report released by the White House.
"Women in America: Indicators¹ of Social and Economic Well-Being²" offers a look at the full measure of a woman's life.
"It's the first comprehensive federal report of this nature since President Kennedy appointed Eleanor Roosevelt in the early 1960s to do a report on women," says Rebecca Blank, undersecretary of economic affairs, adding the new report covers five main areas of women's lives. "It brings together data focusing on families, education, income and employment, health, and crime and violence, and really highlights the trends of what's happening in women's lives across all of those domains³ over the last 20 to 30 years."
Compiling data from a variety of federal agencies, Blank says, revealed both positive and negative trends. Women are less likely than in the past to be the victims of violent crimes, including homicide. Women are marrying later and having fewer children than in the past. They make up 51 percent of the general population, and 57 percent of Americans over 65. Women are more likely than men to face health problems such as arthritis⁴, obesity⁵ and depression... and are less likely to suffer from heart disease and diabetes⁶. The report highlights significant improvement in the field of education.
"There is good news in this report that suggests that women, their educational rates, are growing faster than men's," says Blank. "In fact, if you look at young women, they are graduating from college at a higher rate than young men right now in the United States. That's true among all race and ethnic⁷ groups, not just white women."
But women's advancement⁸ in education hasn't translated into income equality in the workplace.
"One reason is that they are not going into the kind of fields that are high in income producing," says Valerie Jarrett, chairwoman of the White House Council on Women and Girls, who adds that the Obama Administration wants to eliminate that wage gap. "So the president, since early on in his administration, has had an effort to encourage women and girls to go into science and technology and engineering and math."
There are also other reasons for the pay inequity.
"When women accept a position, they often don't negotiate the beginning salary in the same way that a man does," says Lee Ann De Reus, associate professor of women's studies at Penn State Altoona. "This report also indicates that once women have a job, they are not likely as men to negotiate for salary increases over the years. Also, you have a lot of women who are working part time. So there are multiple reasons why women are still trying to balance work and family in a way that men are not. Part of that gets back to what it is that we think a man's role is in the society and what we think a woman's role is in the society."
De Reus hopes the "Women in America" report will highlight how the issues facing women today impact children, families and society as a whole.
"The bottom line is that we all win. The country wins when we're taking care of its citizens. I think with this report indicates that we'll do better as a nation and our future will be brighter, if we start attending to the needs of women. It will only benefit all of us."
The authors hope the information they've gathered in the "Women in America" report will translate into policies and initiatives to help women move forward and prepare girls for a life that's better than what their mothers and grandmothers had.

1 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

2 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

3 domains   

n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产

参考例句：

• The theory of thermodynamics links the macroscopic and submicroscopic domains. 热力学把宏观世界同亚微观世界联系起来。 来自辞典例句
• All three flow domains are indicated by shading. 所有三个流动区域都是用阴影部分表示的。 来自辞典例句

4 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

5 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

6 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

7 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

8 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。