2019年经济学人 东方女性的崛起(2)

 

A likelier explanation is China's manufacturing boom, which afforded women unprecedented¹ opportunities.

一个更有可能的解释是中国制造业蓬勃发展，为女性提供了史无前例的机遇。

In 1968 Mao Zedong enjoined² female labourers to hold up "half the sky"; by the 1980s their labourforce participation³ hovered⁴ around 80%.

1968年，毛主席提出妇女能顶半边天；到20世纪80年代，她们的劳动参与力徘徊在80%。

Britain's then stood at 60%, and America's lower still. India, with a similar GDP per person to China at the time, barely managed 30%.

而当时的英国为60%，美国更少。那时印度和中国的人均GDP差不多，但也只是勉强达到30%。

Many successful Chinese businesswomen rose from the factory floor.

很多成功的中国女商人都是从普通工人成长起来的。

In 2015 Zhou Qunfei, an erstwhile migrant worker who went on to found Lens Technology, maker⁵ of screens for Apple,

2015年，周群飞曾是一名农民工，后来创立了蓝思科技—苹果屏幕制造商，

took the title of the world's wealthiest self-made woman.

她获得了世界最富有的白手起家女性的称号。

After the government expanded college attendance in 1999, women began to prop⁶ up more than half the educational firmament⁷:

1999年，政府扩大了大学入学率后，女性开始支撑起一半以上的教育业：

they make up 56% of graduates, though only 87 girls are born for every 100 boys.

她们占毕业生的56%，虽然男孩女孩出生比为100:87。

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an index of startup activity,

根据创业公司活动指数全球创业观察，

for ten men starting a business in China, eight women launch theirs.

在中国，男女性创业比为10:8。

Between 2010 and 2018 China dropped from 61st (among 134 countries)

根据《世界经济论坛性别差距报告》，在2010年和2018年间，

to 103rd (out of 149) in the World Economic Forum's Gender⁸ Gap Report.

中国从第61名（共134个国家）下降至第103名（共149个国家）。

Economic disparities between the sexes tend to narrow as countries grow richer.

随着国家日益富裕，两性之间的经济差距往往会缩小。

China's have widened, as privatisations in the 1990s prompted a sharper decline

随着20世纪90年代私有化导致男性城市劳动力人数骤减，

in the number of women than of men in the urban workforce⁹ and as women moved into lower-paying service jobs.

女性骤减更为剧烈，并且女性进入了薪酬较低的服务业，这些导致中国两性差距扩大。

Relative to that of men, female participation has been flat or falling every year since 2009, to 69%,

相较于男性，自2009年以来，女性参与率一直平缓或是每年下降并降至69%，

similar to Japan and below Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

此比例和日本相同，且低于越南、柬埔寨和老挝。

Female wages, which were 17% below male wages in the early 1990s, are now 36% lower.

20世纪90年代初期，女性工资比男性工资低17%，如今低36%。

A new Hurun list of 46 self-made billionaires under the age of 40 includes 16 Chinese founders¹⁰,

胡润新出炉了一份名单，46位白手起家的40岁以下亿万富翁名单中，有16位是中国创始人，

but just two—both of them wives in couples that launched internet platforms—are women.

但仅有两位是女性，而这两位女性都是互联网平台创始人的妻子。

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 enjoined   

v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The embezzler was severely punished and enjoined to kick back a portion of the stolen money each month. 贪污犯受到了严厉惩罚，并被责令每月退还部分赃款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She enjoined me strictly not to tell anyone else. 她严令我不准告诉其他任何人。 来自辞典例句

3 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

4 hovered   

鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• A hawk hovered over the hill. 一只鹰在小山的上空翱翔。
• A hawk hovered in the blue sky. 一只老鹰在蓝色的天空中翱翔。

5 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

6 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

7 firmament   

n.苍穹；最高层

参考例句：

• There are no stars in the firmament.天空没有一颗星星。
• He was rich,and a rising star in the political firmament.他十分富有，并且是政治高层一颗冉冉升起的新星。

8 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

9 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

10 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句