VOA新闻杂志2023 日本欲消除"科学女性"的社会压力

Yuna Kato is a third-year student at one of Japan's top engineering universities.

加藤优娜是日本一所顶尖工程大学的三年级学生。

She is looking forward to a career in research but fears it might be short-lived if she has children.

她期待着从事研究工作，但担心如果有了孩子，她的职业生涯可能会很短暂。

Kato says relatives have tried to move her away from studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, commonly called STEM.

加藤说，亲戚们试图让她放弃学习科学、技术、工程和数学，这些通常被称为STEM。

They are doing so on the belief that women in the STEM field are too busy to meet a partner or have a family.

他们这样做是因为他们认为科学、技术、工程和数学领域的女性太忙了，没有时间去找伴侣或组建家庭。

"My grandmother and mother often tell me that there are non-STEM jobs out there if I want to raise children," she said.

她说：“我的祖母和母亲经常告诉我，如果我想抚养孩子，那就不要从事科学、技术、工程和数学领域的工作”。

Kato has made it this far, but many females hoping to become engineers choose a different path due to social pressure.

加藤已经走到了这一步，但由于社会压力，许多希望成为工程师的女性选择了一条不同的道路。

This creates many problems for Japan.

这给日本带来了许多问题。

In the information technology field alone, the country will be lacking 790,000 workers by 2030.

到2030年，仅在信息技术领域，日本就将缺少79万名工人。

That is largely due to a severe underrepresentation of women.

这在很大程度上是由于女性的代表名额严重不足。

The outcome, experts warn, is a decrease in innovation, productivity, and competitiveness.

专家警告称，其结果是创新、生产力和竞争力的下降。

That will be for a country that grew into the world's third-largest economy on those strengths during the last century.

对于一个在上个世纪凭借这些优势成长为世界第三大经济体的国家来说，这不是一件好事。

"It's very wasteful¹ and a loss for the nation," said Yinuo Li.

李怡诺说：“这是非常浪费的，也是国家的损失。”

She is a Chinese educator with a doctorate² in molecular³ biology, and whose likeness⁴ has been used for a children's toy as a female model in STEM.

她是一位拥有分子生物学博士学位的中国教育工作者，作为科学、技术、工程和数学科目的女模特，她的肖像被用来制作儿童玩具。

Japan comes in last among wealthy nations with only 16 percent of female university students majoring in engineering, manufacturing, and construction.

日本在富裕国家中排在最后，只有16%的女大学生主修工程、制造和建筑专业。

And it has just one female scientist for every seven.

只有七分之一的科学家是女性。

That is even with Japanese girls testing second highest in the world in math, and third in science, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found.

经济合作与发展组织发现，尽管日本女孩的数学成绩位居世界第二，科学成绩位居第三，但情况还是如此。

For the school year starting in 2024, about 12 universities, including the Tokyo Institute of Technology, will follow the government's call to introduce a set amount of placement for female STEM students.

从2024年开始的新学年，包括东京工业大学在内的大约12所大学将响应政府的号召，为科学、技术、工程和数学科目引入一定数量的女学生。

It is a big change for a country where an investigation⁵ in 2018 found a Tokyo medical school had purposefully lowered women's entrance tests to favor men.

2018年的一项调查发现，东京一所医学院故意降低了女性入学考试的门槛，该医学院曾偏向招男性，这对日本来说是一个巨大的变化。

School officials felt women were more likely to quit working after having children and would waste their education.

学校官员认为，女性在生了孩子后更有可能辞去工作，浪费她们的教育。

Recently, the government created a video to show educators and other adults how "unconscious bias⁶" pushes girls away from STEM studies.

最近，政府制作了一段视频，向教育工作者和其他成年人展示“无意识的偏见”是如何让女孩不学习科学、技术、工程和数学科目的。

In one moment, an actor playing a school teacher tells a student she is good at math, even though she is a girl.

在片中，一位扮演学校老师的演员告诉一名学生，她很擅长数学，尽管她是个女孩。

This makes her feel unusual to be a female and good at math.

这让她觉得自己作为一个擅长数学的女性是不寻常的。

In another, a mother pushes her daughter away from studying engineering since the field is mostly controlled by men.

在另一个故事中，一位母亲阻止女儿学习工程学，因为这个领域主要是由男性控制的。

Working with private industries, the government's Gender⁷ Equality Bureau will hold more than 100 STEM workshops and events mainly targeting female students.

政府性别平等局将与私营企业合作，举办100多场科学、技术、工程和数学研讨会和活动，主要针对女学生。

Students in one event will learn from the car company Mazda's sports car engineers.

其中一项活动的学生将向马自达汽车公司的跑车工程师学习。

Other companies including Mitsubishi and Toyota are offering scholarships to female STEM students.

包括三菱汽车和丰田汽车在内的其他公司也向学习科学、技术、工程和数学科目的女生提供奖学金。

Mitsubishi human resources official Minoru Taniura noted⁸ that women make up half of the population.

三菱汽车公司的人力资源部官员谷村实指出，女性占总人口的一半。

Taniura added, "If the make-up of engineers is not the same as the population, we'd fall behind in being able to offer what customers are looking for."

谷村补充说：“如果工程师的构成与人口不同，我们就无法提供客户想要的东西。”

1 wasteful   

adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的

参考例句：

• It is a shame to be so wasteful.这样浪费太可惜了。
• Duties have been reassigned to avoid wasteful duplication of work.为避免重复劳动浪费资源，任务已经重新分派。

2 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

3 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

4 likeness   

n.相像，相似（之处）

参考例句：

• I think the painter has produced a very true likeness.我认为这位画家画得非常逼真。
• She treasured the painted likeness of her son.她珍藏她儿子的画像。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 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。

7 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。

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。