Women in the workforce

　　EVEN today in the modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer to have a boy rather than a girl. One longstanding reason why boys have been seen as a greater blessing has been that they are expected to become better economic providers for their parents’ old age. Yet it is time for parents to think again. Girls may now be a better investment.

　　Girls get better grades at school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more than brawn.

　　Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the past couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, China and India. Add the value of housework and child-rearing, and women probably account for just over half of world output. It is true that women still get paid less and few make it to the top of companies, but, as prejudice fades over coming years, women will have great scope to boost their productivity—and incomes.

　　Governments, too, should embrace the potential of women. Women complain (rightly) of centuries of exploitation. Yet, to an economist, women are not exploited enough: they are the world’s most under-utilised resource; getting more of them into work is part of the solution to many economic woes, including shrinking populations and poverty.

　　Some people fret that if more women work rather than mind their children, this will boost GDP but create negative social externalities, such as a lower birth rate. Yet developed countries where more women work, such as Sweden and America, actually have higher birth rates than Japan and Italy, where women stay at home. Others fear that women’s move into the paid labour force can come at the expense of children. Yet the evidence for this is mixed. For instance, a study by Suzanne Bianchi at Maryland University finds that mothers spent the same time, on average, on childcare in 2003 as in 1965.The increase in work outside the home was offset by less housework and less spare time and less sleep.

　　What is clear is that in countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy, which are all troubled by the demographics of shrinking populations, far fewer women work than in America, let alone Sweden. If female labour-force participation in these countries rose to American levels, it would give a helpful boost to these countries’ growth rates. Likewise, in developing countries where girls are less likely to go to school than boys, investing in education would deliver huge economic and social returns. Not only will educated women be more productive, but they will also bring up better educated and healthier children. More women in government could also boost economic growth: studies show that women are more likely to spend money on improving health, education, infrastructure and poverty and less likely to waste it on tanks and bombs.

　　It used to be said that women must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily that is not so difficult.

　　考研詞匯：

　　longstanding['lɔŋ'stændiŋ]

　　a.(已持續(xù))長時(shí)間的,為時(shí)甚久的

　　rear[riə]

　　n.后部，尾部;a.①后方的，后部的;②背后的 v.飼養(yǎng)，撫養(yǎng)

　　prejudice[ˈpredʒədis]

　　n.①偏見，成見;②損害，侵害 v.抱有(存有)偏見

　　[真題例句]In that mirror we can see the strengths, the weaknesses, the hopes, the prejudices (n.①), and the central values of the culture itself.[1994年閱讀3]

　　[例句精譯] 在這面鏡子里，我們可以看到力量、弱點(diǎn)、希望、偏見和文化的核心價(jià)值。

　　embrace[imˈbreis]

　　v.①擁抱;②包含

　　[真題例句]In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces (②) not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.[1994年閱讀1]

　　[例句精譯] 在美國經(jīng)濟(jì)中，私有財(cái)產(chǎn)的概念不僅包括生產(chǎn)資料的所有權(quán)，也包括一定的權(quán)利，比如，產(chǎn)品價(jià)格的決定權(quán)或與其他私有個(gè)體的自由簽約權(quán)。

　　exploitation[.eksplɔi'teiʃən]

　　n.開發(fā), 開采, 剝削, 自私的利用, 宣傳, 廣告

　　negative [ˈnegətiv]

　　n.否定, 負(fù)數(shù), 底片; a.否定的, 消極的, 負(fù)的, 陰性的; vt.否定, 拒絕(接受)

　　背景常識(shí)介紹：

　　隨著時(shí)代的演進(jìn)，特別是知識(shí)經(jīng)濟(jì)時(shí)代的來臨，“重男輕女”的傳統(tǒng)觀念已失去左右企業(yè)甄選人才的能力。如今企業(yè)在選擇人才時(shí)考慮的則是“他或她將為企業(yè)帶來何種比較大化的價(jià)值”。

　　參考譯文：

　　女性工薪階層

　　調(diào)查表明，即使在當(dāng)今的發(fā)達(dá)國家，父母依然更喜歡男孩而不是女孩。認(rèn)為男孩更具優(yōu)勢的一個(gè)傳統(tǒng)原因是，男孩可以在父母年老時(shí)提供更好的經(jīng)濟(jì)幫助�，F(xiàn)在父母該重新考慮了，女孩或許是更好的投資。

　　女孩在校學(xué)習(xí)的分?jǐn)?shù)比男孩高，而且在大多數(shù)發(fā)達(dá)國家，上大學(xué)的女性比男性多。因此，面對21世紀(jì)的新工作，女性具備更好的就業(yè)能力，畢竟21世紀(jì)是講究聰明的頭腦而非強(qiáng)壯的肌肉的時(shí)代。

　　另外，在過去二十年中，就業(yè)女性的增長是發(fā)達(dá)國家經(jīng)濟(jì)增長的主要推動(dòng)力。女性對全球國民生產(chǎn)總值(GDP)增長的貢獻(xiàn)比新技術(shù)和新巨頭(如中國和印度)的貢獻(xiàn)多得多。加上處理家務(wù)和養(yǎng)育孩子的價(jià)值，女性的貢獻(xiàn)或許超過全球產(chǎn)出的一半。雖然女性獲得較少的工資，也難以榮升到公司高層，但是，就像這些年來人們對她們的偏見逐漸減少那樣，女性在提高她們的生產(chǎn)率和收入方面具有很大的拓展空間。

　　政府同樣要發(fā)揮女性的潛能。幾百年來女性抱怨她們受到剝削(這是理所當(dāng)然的)，但對于一個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家來說，女性的潛能還沒有充分開發(fā)，她們是世界上比較沒有得到充分利用的資源，為更多女性提供工作是許多經(jīng)濟(jì)難題(包括人口縮減和消除貧窮)的部分解決方案。

　　有人擔(dān)心，如果更多的女性參加工作而不是在家照顧孩子，雖然她們可以推動(dòng)國民生產(chǎn)總值的增長，但也會(huì)產(chǎn)生負(fù)面的社會(huì)現(xiàn)象，如人口出生率的降低。但是，較多女性參加工作的發(fā)達(dá)國家(如瑞典和美國)的人口出生率比較多女性留在家庭的國家(如日本和意大利)還要高。也有人擔(dān)心女性加入雇傭勞動(dòng)大軍會(huì)影響孩子的成長。但這種現(xiàn)象是復(fù)雜的。例如，Maryland大學(xué)Suzanne Bianchi的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，2003年和1965年母親花在照顧孩子上的平均時(shí)間相同。工作時(shí)間的增加被較少的家務(wù)、休閑和睡眠時(shí)間抵消了。

　　顯而易見，在深受人口縮減困擾的國家，如日本、德國和意大利，參加工作的女性比美國的少得多，更不用說瑞典的了。如果這些國家的女性勞動(dòng)力能增加到美國的水平，那么這些國家的人口出生率將會(huì)大大增加。同樣，在那些女孩上學(xué)機(jī)會(huì)比男孩少的發(fā)展中國家，增加教育的投資將會(huì)使國家獲得巨大的經(jīng)濟(jì)和社會(huì)回報(bào)。受過教育的女性不僅能增加生產(chǎn)率，而且可以養(yǎng)育教育程度更高、更健康的孩子。更多女性在政府工作也可以推動(dòng)經(jīng)濟(jì)增長：研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，女性更愿意把金錢花在改善健康、教育、基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施和貧窮上面，而不會(huì)把大量金錢浪費(fèi)在坦克和炸彈上。

　　過去傳聞，女性必須做兩倍于男性的工作才能獲得一半于男性的良好評(píng)價(jià)。幸運(yùn)的是，事實(shí)并沒有如此困難。