经济学人下载:女人在商界,高处不胜寒

Partly because it is so tricky to juggle kids and a career, many highly able women opt for jobs with predictable hours, such as human resources or accounting. They also gravitate towards fields where their skills are less likely to become obsolete if they take a career break, which is perhaps one reason why nearly two-thirds of new American law graduates are female but only 18% of engineers.
在一定程度上，由于很难在孩子和事业之中找到平衡，许多非常有能力的女性选择工作时间可预测的工作，比如人力资源或者会计。她们也被一些领域的工作所吸引，在这些领域中，如果她们停止工作一段时间后，她们的技能不太可能过时。为什么美国法律专业毕业生中近乎三分之二为女性，而工程专业中只有18%？上述也许会是原因之一。

A study by the Centre for Work-Life Policy, a think-tank based in New York, found that, in 2009, 31% of American women had taken a career break (for an average of 2.7 years) and 66% had switched to working part-time or flexible-time in order to balance work and family. Having left the fast track, many women find it hard to get back on.
纽约职业生涯策略中心（一家智囊机构）的一项研究发现，在2009年，有31%的美国女性的职业生涯中断过（平均2.7年），同时有66%为了家庭和工作的平衡转向了兼职工作或者自由职业。在一度离开快速的工作轨道之后，许多女性发现她们很难再回归了。

A juggling act

Some governments try hard to help women combine a career and family. France and the Scandinavian countries help with child care. Creches and nurseries are subsidised. State schools will hang on to the little monsters well into the evening. This contrasts starkly with American and British schools, which boot them out long before an adult’s work day is over. American parents must also square the circle of ultra-short holidays for grown-ups and absurdly long ones for kids.
一些政府正非常努力的帮助女性将他们的工作和家庭结合起来。法国和斯堪的纳维亚半岛国家在幼儿保育方面来帮助女性。育婴堂和托儿所受到政府的财政补贴。公立学校将会很好地照顾这些小恶魔们直到入夜。这与美国和英国学校的做法形成鲜明的对比，这两国的学校早在成人下班之前就把孩子赶了出去。美国父母自己有非常短的假期已经是很困难的了，而荒谬的是孩子们却又很长的假期。

German parents enjoy 14 months of Elterngeld (taxpayer-funded parental leave). The aim is to encourage women to take
shorter breaks from their job after giving birth. The law, which passed in 2006, was pushed by Ursula von der Leyen, the then family minister (and a mother of seven). Ms von der Leyen also sponsored a 2008 law promising every one-year-old the right to a free nursery place by 2013
德国的父母可以享受14个月的“父母金“（纳税人资助的产假）。这一福利的目的是鼓励女性在产后远离工作，休息一段时间。该法案由家庭部长,同时也是7个孩子的母亲——乌尔苏拉．范得莱恩（Ursula von der Leyen）促成，与2006年获得通过。范得莱恩女士也支持了2008年的一项法案，该法案承诺在2013年，将会为每一个一岁的婴儿提供免费托儿的权利。