向前一步:第209期 让我们开始讨论吧(15)

 Still, this approach is a bit of a crutch¹ and it does not translate to other companies. 不过，这种方法只是权宜之计，也没有前车之鉴。

It would be preferable if everyone had permission to talk about this subject both publicly and behind closed office doors. 如果每个人都被允许在公开场合和办公室里自由地谈论这个话题，那就更好了。

One stumbling block is that many people believe that the workplace is largely a meritocracy, 还有一块很大的绊脚石是，许多人相信职场中奉行的是“一切看实力”的游戏规则，

which means we look at individuals, not groups, and determine that differences in outcomes must be based on merit, not gender². 意思是我们只看个人而非群体的表现，而且导致结果不同的决定因素必然是实力而非性别。

Men at the top are often unaware³ of the benefits they enjoy simply because they're men, 高层男性常常意识不到仅仅因为自己是男性而享受到的好处，

and this can make them blind to the disadvantages associated with being a woman. 这就让他们看不到作为女性所存在的弱势。

Women lower down also believe that men at the top are entitled to be there, 低层女性也相信高层男性的地位来自于实力，

so they try to play by the rules and work harder to advance rather than raise questions or voice concerns about the possibility of bias⁴. 所以她们努力遵从各种规则，努力工作以谋求发展，而不是对可能存在的性别偏见提出质疑、发表意见。

As a result, everyone becomes complicit in perpetuating⁵ an unjust system. 结果，所有人都一起在维护这种不公平的体制。

At the same time, we must be careful not to inject gender into every discussion. 与此同时，我们还必须小心，不要把性别问题带入所有的讨论。

I know a male CEO who is enormously dedicated⁶ to hiring and promoting women. 我认识的一个男性首席执行官曾花了很大心力去雇用和晋升女员工。

When a female employee kicked off a negotiation⁷ by insisting that she should have a higher title and was underleveled because she was a woman, 有一位女员工和他商议时，坚持认为自己的职位应该更高，而且认为自己之所以不被重视是由于身为女性。

it immediately put him on the defense⁸. 他听到这话不得不立刻反驳。

She was speaking her truth, but in this case, her truth was an accusation⁹ with legal ramifications¹⁰. 她说的是实话，但在这种情况下，实话却略带夸张地变成了控诉。

As soon as she framed the issue in those terms, the CEO had no choice but to put their friendly talks on hold and call in HR. 一旦她用这种方式来谈问题，首席执行官就别无选择，只好暂时中断原本友好的谈话。

 

1 crutch   

n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱

参考例句：

• Her religion was a crutch to her when John died.约翰死后，她在精神上依靠宗教信仰支撑住自己。
• He uses his wife as a kind of crutch because of his lack of confidence.他缺乏自信心，总把妻子当作主心骨。

2 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。

3 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

4 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

5 perpetuating   

perpetuate的现在进行式

参考例句：

• Revenge leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. 怨怨相报会导致永不休止的暴力。
• It'set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. 它的目的只是要根除异端邪说，结果却巩固了异端邪说。 来自英汉文学

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

7 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

10 ramifications   

n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These changes are bound to have widespread social ramifications. 这些变化注定会造成许多难以预料的社会后果。
• What are the ramifications of our decision to join the union? 我们决定加入工会会引起哪些后果呢？ 来自《简明英汉词典》