向前一步:第225期 为平等而不懈努力(4)

 Women who want to take two weeks off ...or two days ...or two years ...or twenty years deserve everyone's full support. 不管产假要休两周、两天还是两年，女性都应得到所有人的支持。

As Marissa's experience demonstrates, women in powerful positions often receive greater scrutiny¹. 玛丽萨·迈耶的经历证明，女性高管常常会引来更多的审视。

Because the vast majority of leaders are men, it is not possible to generalize from any one example. 因为领导层中大多数都是男性，单个女性高管的例子并不具有普遍性，

But the dearth² of female leaders causes one woman to be viewed as representative of her entire gender³. 但女性领导者的稀缺则会导致一位女性被看作是整个性别人群的代表。

And because people often discount and dislike female leaders, these generalizations⁴ are often critical. 由于人们会轻视、排斥女性领导者，所以这种个例普遍化的做法常常是带有批判性的，

This is not just unfair to the individuals but reinforces the stigma⁵ that successful women are unlikeable. 这不仅对个体不公平，而且也会强化人们认为“成功女性不可爱”的偏见。

A perfect and personal example occurred in May 2012, when a Forbes blogger posted an article entitled 有一个案例很能说明问题：2012年5月福布斯博客上有人发表了一篇文章，题为

"Sheryl Sandberg Is the Valley's 'It' Girl—Just Like Kim Polese Once Was." “谢丽尔·桑德伯格——硅谷继金·波莱塞之后的又一位‘科技妙龄女’”。

He began his comparison by describing Kim, an early tech entrepreneur, as a "luminary⁶" in the mid-1990s who never really earned her success, 作者写道，早期的科技企业家金·波莱塞虽被看作是20世纪90年代中期的“杰出人物”，但她从没获得真正的成功，

but was "in the right place at the right time (and was) young, pretty and a good speaker." 只是“作为一个年轻漂亮的演说家出现在对的时间、对的地点”。

The blogger then argued, "I think Polese is a good cautionary tale for ...Sheryl Sandberg." Ouch. 然后作者又说，“我认为波莱塞对桑德伯格来说是个很好的警示”。哇哦！

Kim and I had never met or spoken before this incident, but she defended both of us. 在这之前，我从没见过波莱塞，也没和她说过话，但她的回应则是在为我们两人辩护。

 

1 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

2 dearth   

n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨

参考例句：

• There is a dearth of good children's plays.目前缺少优秀的儿童剧。
• Many people in that country died because of dearth of food.那个国家有许多人因为缺少粮食而死。

3 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。

4 generalizations   

一般化( generalization的名词复数 )； 普通化； 归纳； 概论

参考例句：

• But Pearlson cautions that the findings are simply generalizations. 但是波尔森提醒人们，这些发现是简单的综合资料。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 大脑与疾病
• They were of great service in correcting my jejune generalizations. 他们纠正了我不成熟的泛泛之论，帮了我大忙。

5 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

6 luminary   

n.名人，天体

参考例句：

• That luminary gazed earnestly at some papers before him.那个大好佬在用心细看面前的报纸。
• Now that a new light shone upon the horizon,this older luminary paled in the west.现在东方地平线上升起了一轮朝阳，这弯残月就在西边天际失去了光泽。