Female power.doc

Female power Across the rich world more women are working than ever before. Coping with this change will be one of the great challenges of the coming decades THE economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years. It is remarkable because of the extent of the change: millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their own economic fates. It is remarkable also because it has produced so little friction: a change that affects the most intimate aspects of peoples identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women. Dramatic social change seldom takes such a benign form. Yet even benign change can come with a sting in its tail. Social arrangements have not caught up with economic changes. Many children have paid a price for the rise of the two-income household. Many womenand indeed many menfeel that they are caught in an ever-tightening tangle of commitments. If the empowerment of women was one of the great changes of the past 50 years, dealing with its social consequences will be one of the great challenges of the next 50. At the end of her campaign to become Americas first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton remarked that her 18m votes in the Democratic Partys primaries represented 18m cracks in the glass ceiling. In the market for jobs rather than votes the ceiling is being cracked every day. Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run some of the worlds best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe. Progress has not been uniform, of course. In Italy and Japan employment rates for men are more than 20 percentage points higher than those for women (see chart 1). Although Italys female employment rate has risen markedly in the past decade, it is still below 50%, and more than 20 percentage points below those of Denmark and Sweden (chart 2). Women earn substantially less than men on average and are severely under-represented at the top of organisations. The change is dramatic nevertheless. A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and were routinely subjected to casual sexismas “Mad Men”, a television drama about advertising executives in the early 1960s, demonstrates brilliantly. Today women make up the majority of professional workers in many countries (51% in the United States, for example) and casual sexism is for losers. Even holdouts such as the Mediterranean countries are changing rapidly. In Spain the proportion of young women in the labour force has now reached American levels. The glass is much nearer to being half full than half empty. What explains this revolution? Politics have clearly played a part. Feminists such as Betty Friedan have demonised domestic slavery and lambasted discrimination. Governments have passed equal-rights acts. Female politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Mrs Clinton have taught younger women that anything is possible. But politics is only part of the answer: such discordant figures as Ms Friedan and Lady Thatcher have been borne aloft by subterranean economic and technological forces. The rich world has seen a growing demand for womens labour. When brute strength mattered more than brains, men had an inherent advantage. Now that brainpower has triumphed the two sexes are more evenly matched. The feminisation of the workforce has been driven by the relentless rise of the service sector (where women can compete as well as men) and the equally relentless decline of manufacturing (where they could not). The landmark book in the rise of feminism was arguably not Ms Friedans “The Feminine Mystique” but Daniel Bells “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society”. Demand has been matched by supply: women are increasingly willing and able to work outside the home. The vacuum cleaner has played its part. Improved technology reduced the amount of time needed for the traditional female work of cleaning and cooking. But the most important innovation has been the contraceptive pill. The spread of the pill has not only allowed women to get married later. It has also increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills, particularly slow-burning skills that are hard to learn and take many years to pay off. The knowledge that they would not have to drop out of, say, law school to have a baby made law school more attractive. The expansion of higher education has also boosted job prospects for women, improving their value on the job market and shifting their role models from stay-at-home mothers to successful professional women. The best-educated women have always been more likely than other women to work, even after having children. In 1963, 62% of college-educated women in the United States were in the labour force, compared with 46% of those with a high school diploma. Today 80% of American women with a college education are in the labour force compared with 67% of those with a high school diploma and 47% of those without one.This growing cohort of university-educated women is also educated in more marketable subjects. In 1966, 40% of American women who received a BA specialised in education in college; 2% specialised in business and management. The figures are now 12% and 50%. Women only continue to lag seriously behind men in a handful of subjects, such as engineering and computer sciences, where they earned about one-fifth of degrees in 2006.One of the most surprising things about this revolution is how little overt celebration it has engendered. Most people welcome the change. A recent Rockefeller Foundation/Time survey found that three-quarters of Americans regarded it as a positive development. Nine men out of ten said they were comfortable with women earning more than them. But few are cheering. This is partly because young women take their opportunities for granted. It is partly because for many women work represents economic necessity rather than liberation. The rich worlds growing army of single mothers have little choice but to work. A growing proportion of married women have also discovered that the only way they can preserve their households living standards is to join their husbands in the labour market. In America families with stay-at-home wives have the same inflation-adjusted income as similar families did in the early 1970s. But the biggest reason is that the revolution has brought plenty of problems in its wake. Across the rich world more women are working than ever before. Coping with this change will be one of the great challenges of the coming decades在发达国家，比以往更多的女性正在工作。应对这一变化这将是今后几十年面临的重大挑战之一。THE economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years. It is remarkable because of the extent of the change: millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their own economic fates. It is remarkable also because it has produced so little friction: a change that affects the most intimate aspects of peoples identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women. Dramatic social change seldom takes such a benign form.发达国家女性的经济赋权是过去五十年中最引人注目的革命之一。它引人注目是因为变革的程度：成千上万曾经依靠男人的女人们掌握了自己的经济命运。还因为它几乎没怎么产生摩擦：一个影响人身份最本质方面的变革受到男人们和女人们的普遍欢迎。巨大的社会变革很少能有这样温和的形式。Yet even benign change can come with a sting in its tail. Social arrangements have not caught up with economic changes. Many children have paid a price for the rise of the two-income household. Many womenand indeed many menfeel that they are caught in an ever-tightening tangle of commitments. If the empowerment of women was one of the great changes of the past 50 years, dealing with its social consequences will be one of the great challenges of the next 50.但即使温和的变革也可以有带刺的尾巴。社会配置没有跟上经济变化。许多孩子为双收入家庭的增加付出了代价。很多女性-事实上还有很多男性-觉得自己被缠绕在一个越来越紧的“义务”线团之中。如果说女性赋权是过去50年中最伟大的变革之一，那么应对其带来的社会效应将是今后50年最巨大的挑战之一。At the end of her campaign to become Americas first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton remarked that her 18m votes in the Democratic Partys primaries represented 18m cracks in the glass ceiling1. In the market for jobs rather than votes the ceiling is being cracked every day. Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run some of the worlds best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe.在希拉里克林顿竞选美国首位女性总统的运动结束时，她评论说她的一千八百万民主党党内初选选票代表了玻璃天花板的一千八百万次粉碎。而每天在被打破着的，是工作机会的玻璃天花板。女性几乎占了当今美国劳动力的半数（十月：49.9%）。她们领导着一些世界最好的公司，比如百事可乐，阿彻丹尼斯米德兰（AMD）和戈尔公司（W.L. Gore）。在美国和欧洲，大约60%的大学学位由女性获得。Progress has not been uniform, of course. In Italy and Japan employment rates for men are more than 20 percentage points higher than those for women (see chart 1). Although Italys female employment rate has risen markedly in the past decade, it is still below 50%, and more than 20 percentage points below those of Denmark and Sweden (chart 2). Women earn substantially less than men on average and are severely under-represented at the top of organisations. 当然，进程不可能是一致的，在意大利和日本，男性的就业率比女性高出20多个百分点（见图1）。虽然意大利的女性就业率在过去十年中显著增长，但却仍然低于50%，比丹麦和瑞典低了二十多个百分点（见图2）。女性平均比男性挣得少很多，并且在组织高层所占席位极少。The change is dramatic nevertheless. A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and were routinely subjected to casual sexismas “Mad Men”, a television drama about advertising executives in the early 1960s, demonstrates brilliantly. Today women make up the majority of professional workers in many countries (51% in the United States, for example) and casual sexism is for losers. Even holdouts such as the Mediterranean countries are changing rapidly. In Spain the proportion of young women in the labour force has now reached American levels. The glass is much nearer to being half full than half empty.不过变革仍然是剧烈的。30年以前，职业女性干的只是些粗活，并且总是会被“不经意的歧视”-“广告狂人”，一部关于1960年代广告人的美剧，很好的诠释了这点。如今，女性占专业人员的大半部分（比如在美国占了51%），而只有那些失败者才会“不经意的歧视”（女性）。即使是顽固的地中海国家们也在迅速的变化着。在西班牙，年轻女性占劳动力的比例已与美国相当，差不多已经大于了一半。What explains this revolution? Politics have clearly played a part. Feminists such as Betty Friedan have demonised domestic slavery and lambasted discrimination. Governments have passed equal-rights acts. Female politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Mrs Clinton have taught younger women that anything is possible. But politics is only part of the answer: such discordant figures as Ms Friedan and Lady Thatcher have been borne aloft by subterranean economic and technological forces.是什么造成了这场革命？政治很明显起了一定作用。贝蒂弗里丹这样的女权主义者妖魔化了“家务奴隶”并狠狠的鞭笞了性别歧视。政府们通过了权利平等法案。玛格丽特撒切尔和希拉里克林顿这样的女政治家教会了年轻女孩们“万事皆有可能”。但政治只是部分因素：像弗里丹和撒切尔夫人这样的“离经叛道者”其实是被经济和技术力量的暗涌推到风口浪尖的。The rich world has seen a growing demand for womens labour. When brute strength mattered more than brains, men had an inherent advantage. Now that brainpower has triumphed the two sexes are more evenly matched. The feminisation of the workforce has been driven by the relentless rise of the service sector (where women can compete as well as men) and the equally relentless decline of manufacturing (where they could not). The landmark book in the rise of feminism was arguably not Ms Friedans “The Feminine Mystique” but Daniel Bells “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society”. 发达国家对女性劳动力的需求见长。在蛮力比脑力重要的年代，男人有天生的优势。而今由于脑力占优势，两性的实力更相当了。服务业（在此行业，女性可与男性竞争）的迅猛增长和制造业（在此行业，女性无法与男性抗衡）同样迅猛的衰落推动了劳动力的女性化。也许女权主义兴起的里程碑式的书籍不是弗里丹女士的女性迷思，而可能是丹尼尔贝尔的后工业社会的来临。Demand has been matched by supply: women are increasingly willing and able to work outside the home. The vacuum cleaner has played its part. Improved technology reduced the amount of time needed for the traditional female work of cleaning and cooking. But the most important innovation has been the contraceptive pill. The spread of the pill has not only allowed women to get married later. It has also increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills, particularly slow-burning skills that are hard to learn and take many years to pay off. The knowledge that they would not have to drop out of, say, law school to have a baby made law school more attractive. 需求和供给得以匹配：女性更愿意并更能外出工作了。吸尘器起到了作用。改进的技术减少了打扫和烹饪等传统女性家务的所需时间。但最重要的创新是避孕药。避孕药的推广不光使女性可以更晚结婚，还增加了她们在获得技能，特别是那些难学、又要很多年才有成效的“慢性”技能上投资时间和努力的动因。比方说，女性们要是知道她们没有必要为了生小孩而从法律学院辍学，那法学院对她们就更有吸引力了。The expansion of higher education has also boosted job prospects for women, improving their value on the job market and shifting their role models from stay-at-home mothers to successful professional women. The best-educated women have always been more likely than other women to work, even after having children. In 1963, 62% of college-educated women in the United States were in the labour force, compared with 46% of those with a high school diploma. Today 80% of American women with a college education are in the labour force compared with 67% of those with a high school diploma and 47% of those without one.高等教育的普及也提升了女性的就业前景，提升了她们在就业市场上的价值，并且使她们的角色模型从全职妈妈变成了成功专业女性。接受最好教育的女性往往比一般女性更愿意工作，就算有了孩子也一样。1963年，62%的大学毕业女性在工作，而高中毕业的女性中，这个数字只有46%。而如今的美国，这两个比率分别为80%和67%，而高中未毕业的女性中，这个数字为47%。This growing cohort of university-educated women is also educated in more marketable subjects. In 1966, 40% of American women who received a BA specialised in education in college; 2% specialised in business and management. The figures are now 12% and 50%. Women only continue to lag seriously behind men in a handful of subjects, such as engineering and computer sciences, where they earned about one-fifth of degrees in 2006. 这群越来越多的大学毕业女性也选择了更畅销的专业。1966年，获得文科学士的女性中，40%主修教育专业，2%主修工商和管理学。如今这两个数字是12%和50%。女性只在少数专业上落后于男性，比如工程学和计算机科学，2006年这些专业女性只占1/5。One of the most surprising things about this revolution is how little overt celebration it has engendered. Most people welcome the change. A recent Rockefeller Foundation/Time survey found that three-quarters of Americans regarded it as a positive development. Nine men out of ten said they were comfortable with women earning more than them. But few are cheering. This is partly because young women take their opportunities for granted. It is partly because for many women work represents economic necessity rather than liberation. The rich worlds growing army of single mothers have little choice but to work. A growing proportion of married women have also discovered that the only way they can preserve their households living standards is to join their husbands in the labour market. In America families with stay-at-home wives have the same inflation-adjusted income as similar families did in the early 1970s. But the biggest reason is that the revolution has brought plenty of problems in its wake. 最让人惊奇的事之一是这一革命引来的公开颂扬如此之少。大多数人欢迎这个变革，最近一次洛克菲勒基金会和时代杂志的调查显示，3/4的美国人认为这是一项积极的发展。10个男人里有9个声称不介意女性赚得比他们多，但很少有为此高兴的。这部分是因为许多年轻女性认为她们的机会是理所应当的。而这又部分是因为许多女性参与工作代表的是一种经济需求，