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THIS IS AMERICA - Issues of Economics, Fairness Shape Debate on Working MothersBy Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, May 22, 2006

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Can a mother work outside the home and still take good care of her children? This question has long been the subject of debate in American society.

VOICE ONE:

And this week on our program, we examine the latest developments.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

On a television talk show, two women look at one another with hostile eyes. One says she knows the right way to be a mother. No, the other says SHE knows the right way to be a mother.

The first one says a good mother stays home to take care of her children. The other woman says a good mother helps her family by earning money. She says a full-time1 working mother makes her time with her children more meaningful because there is less of it.

Impossible! the first one shouts. Voices rise. And so goes a unusually heated example of what some people call the mommy wars. Even that name incites2 reaction. Some find it insulting for such a serious subject.

The debate is emotional and deeply personal. The arguments involve issues of equality, fairness and economic realities. They also involve struggles with guilt3 and inner conflict as parents try to decide what is best for their children.

VOICE ONE:

In America, seven out of ten mothers have paid jobs, either full time or part time. These include more than half of women with babies or young children.

As many as twelve million children of working mothers are too young for school. Two million of them in a recent year spent most of their parents' workdays in day care centers. Other children receive individual care, either in their own home or someone else's.


Some companies provide day care centers at the workplace. At General Mills, Kirstie Foster visits her 10-month-old daughter, Mia, in 2004.

Some are cared for by family members, and many go to a combination of places. In some families where both parents work, they organize their jobs so that one parent is always home.

VOICE TWO:

On one side of the debate are women who say mothers should not work, especially when their children are very young. They say there are many good reasons why raising a child should be a mother's full-time job. For one thing, they say, children in day care are more likely to get sick.

Some studies support their opinions, but others do not.

On the other side of the debate are mothers who say day care helps children learn social skills. They point out that early education programs in many day care centers also help prepare children for school. And they note that some medical studies show that day care helps children develop resistance, so they get sick less often as they get older.

VOICE ONE:

Half a century ago, few American mothers with little children worked away from home. But over the years, many families found they needed two earners to pay for their houses, cars and other costs of living.

The women's liberation movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies also changed American life. More and more young women were college educated. Influential4 feminists5 like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan urged them to put their knowledge and skills to work outside the home.

Today, half of mothers with babies under a year old return to work within the first six months. Some say no one would ever question a man's desire to succeed as an individual. But others have no choice. Their husbands do not earn enough to support the family. Or their husbands have no job. Or they have no husband.

The poorer the family, the greater the pressure on the mother to work.

Women with more money can face a different kind of pressure: social pressure. Some people condemn6 them if they want to work. Yet others condemn them if they want to be traditional homemakers.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Some commentators7 say the media are fueling the idea of mommy wars because it makes a good story. But whatever they call it, this is a subject that women, and men, discuss on talk shows. They write about it in newspapers, magazines and Web sites. There are books on the subject. These include Beth Brykman's The Wall Between Women: The Conflict Between Stay-at-Home and Employed Mothers.

Businesswoman and writer Leslie Morgan Steiner edited a book in which twenty-six women describe their lives as mothers. The book is called Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families.

VOICE ONE:

Carol Evans is founder8 of Working Mother Media, which publishes Working Mother magazine. She notes that many women with young children find different solutions in their lives. Some telecommute to their jobs from home by computer, fax machine or even just a telephone. Others work just part time. And some leave their jobs for years to raise their children.

Business schools at Harvard and other universities have created educational programs to help prepare women to re-enter the working world.

VOICE TWO:

If that is their choice. There have been recent stories about young women at top universities who say they want to become stay-at-home mothers.

Employment of women with babies under one year dropped in the most recent period reported by the Census9 Bureau. The rate decreased from fifty-nine percent in nineteen ninety-eight to fifty-five percent in two thousand two. The Census Bureau said this was the first recorded drop since it began to keep these records in nineteen seventy-six.

A new mother from Bethesda, Maryland, left a good job at a bank to raise her child. That was in two thousand. Children are only young once, she says.

VOICE ONE:

Sometimes, though, mothers who decide to stay home find the change surprisingly difficult.

In nineteen eighty-seven, a postal10 worker named Joanne Brundage left her job to become a stay-at-home mother. Soon she felt lonely. She wanted to talk to other mothers. But most were working. So she formed a support group for mothers who had left the workplace.

Today, her organization Mothers & More has seven thousand members around the country. They work not only to improve the lives of mothers. They also try to educate other people about the value of the work that mothers do.

Other groups for mothers include Mothers of Preschoolers. MOPS has members in the United States and more than thirty other countries.

VOICE TWO:

Joanne Brundage made her own decision to leave her job after she became a mother. Some women, however, have that decision made for them: mothers who lose their jobs or their chances at better jobs. This is illegal, if a woman can prove that her employer violated her civil rights.

Many new mothers and fathers take time off under a federal law, the Family and Medical Leave Act. It lets an employee take up to twelve weeks a year of unpaid11 leave for a number of family or medical reasons. Congress targeted this nineteen ninety-three law to employers with fifty or more workers. But many smaller employers also offer unpaid family leave.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Research shows that married women who work still do much of the housework for their families. Salary.com wanted to put a dollar value on all the work that mothers do.

So the Web site asked women to identify their ten most important jobs at home. These include housekeeper12, day care center teacher, cook and computer operator. Other jobs include washing the clothes and acting13 as the family driver and mental health specialist.

Salary.com said that together these ten jobs would normally pay more than one hundred thirty thousand dollars a year.

VOICE TWO:

Stay-at-home mothers point out that they avoid many of the costs that often reduce the earnings14 of working mothers. Child care services can add up to thousands of dollars a year. Working families also have less time to prepare their own meals, so they eat out more.

A young mother of two in Alexandria, Virginia, works in a hospital far from her home. She says she could not do her job and manage her family without the services now offered for busy people. Her life is too busy, she admits. But she also says that the money she earns makes life more pleasant for her family.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver15 was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. You can read and listen to our shows at voaspecialenlgish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
2 incites 68eca287329b28545dbd9d6a3cf30705     
刺激,激励,煽动( incite的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • In all countries any person who incites others to insurrection is guilty of treason. 在任何国家里,煽动他人谋反者,都属犯叛国罪。
  • The success of the handicapped man incites us to pursue our dreams. 这位残疾人的成功激励我们追求自己的梦想。
3 guilt 9e6xr     
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责
参考例句:
  • She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
  • Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。
4 influential l7oxK     
adj.有影响的,有权势的
参考例句:
  • He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
  • He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。
5 feminists ef6993909ee3f0b8d1e79a268168539d     
n.男女平等主义者,女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Only 16 percent of young women in a 1990 survey considered themselves feminists. 在1990年的一项调查中,只有16%的年轻女性认为自己是女权主义者。 来自辞典例句
  • The organization had many enemies, most notably among feminists. 这个组织有许多敌人,特别是在男女平等主义者中。 来自辞典例句
6 condemn zpxzp     
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑
参考例句:
  • Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他,而有些人谴责他。
  • We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。
7 commentators 14bfe5fe312768eb5df7698676f7837c     
n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 );时事评论员;注释者;实况广播员
参考例句:
  • Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语,真叫人腻烦。
  • Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话,令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 Founder wigxF     
n.创始者,缔造者
参考例句:
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
9 census arnz5     
n.(官方的)人口调查,人口普查
参考例句:
  • A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
  • The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。
10 postal EP0xt     
adj.邮政的,邮局的
参考例句:
  • A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
  • Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。
11 unpaid fjEwu     
adj.未付款的,无报酬的
参考例句:
  • Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
  • He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。
12 housekeeper 6q2zxl     
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家
参考例句:
  • A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
  • She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家,一家人吃得很省。
13 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
14 earnings rrWxJ     
n.工资收人;利润,利益,所得
参考例句:
  • That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
  • Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。
15 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

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