经济学人下载:巴托比职场专栏--女性的职场发展(1)

Business 

来源于《商业》版块

Bartleby

巴托比职场专栏

A woman’s work 

女性的工作

Women have made great strides in the employment market over the past 50 years. But many still feel that their progress is being obstructed and, to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8th, two new books by feminist writers tackle the issues. 

在过去的50年里，女性在就业市场上取得了巨大的进步。但许多女性仍然认为进步受到了阻碍，而且，正符合3月8日国际妇女节主题，女权主义作家的两本新书也在探讨这个问题。

In “The Fix” Michelle King, director of inclusion at Netflix, a video-streaming giant, observes that women are constantly told they need to change themselves—be more assertive, work longer hours and so on. Instead, she argues, working practices should change to accommodate the needs of half the adult population. In “The Home Stretch” Sally Howard, a journalist, suggests that a big reason why women are held back is that even those who work full-time are still expected to do the bulk of the housework. To cite the book’s lengthy but apposite subtitle, she makes a strong case “why it’s time to come clean about who does the dishes”. 

视频流媒体巨头Netflix的包容性部门主管米歇尔•金在《The Fix》一书中提到，女性经常被告知需要改变自己——更加自信，工作时间更长等等。与此相反，她认为，工作方式应该改变，以适应一半成年人口的需要。在《The Home Stretch》一书中，记者萨莉•霍华德指出，女性受限制的一个重要原因是，即使是全职工作的女性也被要求承担大部分家务。引用这本书冗长而贴切的副标题，她提出了一个强有力的理由:“为什么是时候明确谁来洗碗了”。

Male managers may find these books an uncomfortable read, peppered with talk of the patriarchy and gender privilege. Sometimes, the authors go too far. Ms Howard links the patriarchy with capitalism so often that one wonders whether she has ever seen a picture of the Soviet Union’s all-male politburo. 

男性管理者可能会发现，这些书读起来让人不舒服，里面充斥着父权制和性别特权的言论。有时，作者的确言辞过激。霍华德女士如此频繁地将父权制与资本主义联系在一起，以至于人们不禁要问，她是否见过苏联政治局全部由男性组成的画面。

But men do not need to forsake the capitalist system to appreciate the plight of female workers. They just need empathy. Are women in the workplace judged by the same standards as their male colleagues? Are they described with adjectives (strident or emotional, for example) that would not be applied to men with the same characteristics? 

但是，男人并不需要放弃资本主义制度来欣赏女工人的困境。他们只是需要同理心。职场女性是否与男同事评判标准相同？他们是否用了一些形容词(如刺耳的或情绪化的)来描述女性，而这些形容词并不适用于具有相同特征的男性？

Despite recent progress, women still face a glass ceiling. A couple of stories in Ms King’s book illustrate the point. Sarah was an executive at a multinational who worked late, underwent management training and enthusiastically received and acted on feedback. After many years of rejection, it seemed she was due for promotion to the next tier, which was 100% male. But at the key meeting a male executive said: “I don’t know; she just doesn’t fit. She has those glasses and she wears that clip in her hair.” Not exactly “scientific management”. 

尽管最近有所进步，但是女性仍然面临着玻璃天花板。金女士书中的几个故事说明了这一点。萨拉是一家跨国公司的高管，她工作到很晚，接受过管理培训，热情地接受反馈并采取行动。她似乎本应该晋升一个级别，如果是男性100%会晋升，但她多年遭到拒绝。但在关键会议上，一位男性高管表示:“我不知道；她就是不适合。她戴着眼镜，头上戴着发夹。”不完全是“科学管理”。