年長女性仍可馳騁職場

If women are so far ahead of men, why are they so far behind? Reports from both sides of the Atlantic show that female students dominate university courses, yet women still do not make it to the top.
既然女人遠比男人優(yōu)秀，為什么她們落后男人那么多？來自大西洋兩岸的報告均表明，盡管女生在大學(xué)課堂上占盡優(yōu)勢，但女人依舊沒有攀上頂尖位置。
　　
A report on inequality in the UK said last week that girls had better educational results than boys at 16, went to university in greater numbers and achieved better degrees once they got there. “More women now have higher education qualifications than men in every age group up to age 44,” the report said.
英國上周發(fā)表的一份有關(guān)兩性差異的報告稱，女生在16歲時的學(xué)習(xí)成績優(yōu)于男生；考上大學(xué)的人數(shù)多于男生；在大學(xué)取得的學(xué)位也好于男生。報告稱：“在45歲前的各個年齡組，擁有高等教育學(xué)歷的女性都多于男性?！?br> 　　
In the US, 57 per cent of college graduates in 2006-07 were women. Women form the majority of all graduates under 45.
在美國，2006-07屆大學(xué)畢業(yè)生中，57%是女性。在低于45歲的所有大學(xué)畢業(yè)生中，女性也占大部分。
　　
Yet few women make it to the boards of companies in either country. In the UK, the proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards rose fractionally from 11.7 per cent to 12.2 per cent last year, according to the Cranfield University School of Management, but that was only because of a fall in the size of the boards.
然而，不管在哪個國家，成功躋身公司董事會的女性都屬鳳毛麟角。在英國，據(jù)克蘭菲爾德管理學(xué)院表示，去年在富時100指數(shù)成分股公司中，女性在董事會所占的比例從11.7%微升至12.2%。但究其原因，完全是因為董事會規(guī)模有所縮小。
　　
In the US, women accounted for 15.2 per cent of board seats on Fortune 500 companies, according to Catalyst, the research organisation, which said the numbers had barely budged for five years.
在美國，據(jù)研究機構(gòu)Catalyst的數(shù)據(jù)，在“財富500強”企業(yè)中，只有15.2%的董事是女性。該機構(gòu)還表示，這一比例5年來幾乎毫無變化。
　　
The hopeful way of looking at this is that the rising generation of female graduates has yet to reach director age. Give it 10 years and they will dominate boards as they do universities.
對此，一種樂觀的想法是，“新生代”的女性大學(xué)畢業(yè)生尚未達到當董事的年齡。再過10年，她們就將會成為董事會中的多數(shù)，像在大學(xué)里一樣。
　　
If that were true, however, we would surely see the number of women director numbers moving up by now. The first year that women college graduates outnumbered men in the US was 1982. These graduates must be entering their 50s – prime director age.
然而，如果真的是這樣，我們現(xiàn)在就應(yīng)當看到，女性董事的人數(shù)在逐漸增多。在美國，女性大學(xué)畢業(yè)生人數(shù)超過男性，最早是在1982年。這批大學(xué)畢業(yè)生現(xiàn)在即將跨入50歲門檻——這正是當董事的黃金年齡。
　　
There is evidence that the younger generation of women is thriving in the workplace. A recent report from the Pew Research Center found that the earnings of US-born 30- to 44-year old women grew 44 per cent between 1970 and 2007, compared with a rise of only 6 per cent for men. In this age group, 22 per cent of wives earned more than their husbands in 2007, compared with 4 per cent in 1970.
有跡象顯示，年輕一代的女性在職場上很吃得開。佩尤研究中心在近期一份報告中指出，在1970至2007年間，美國出生的30-44歲女性的薪酬增長了44%；相比之下，男性薪酬僅增長6%。就這個年齡組而言，在2007年，22%的女性薪酬高于她們的丈夫；而在1970年，這一比例只有4%。
　　
Yet, even for this cohort, there was still a large pay gap, the Pew research found, with women earning on average only 71 per cent of what men earned.
然而，即使是在這個年齡組，兩性之間也存在巨大的薪酬差距：女性薪酬平均只有男性的71%。