谁说职场女性不如男？

时间：2021-02-20 18:34:13 求职英语我要投稿

谁说职场女性不如男？

　　After decades of glacial change in gender roles, a new generation of working women is proving to be as ambitious as their male counterparts, as measured by their eagerness to move up the career ladder.

　　Based on a unique long-term study of attitudes in the U.S. work force, about two-thirds of both men and women under age 29 say they desire more responsibility on the job. Having children doesn't dent the ambitions of young women workers; 69% of mothers in this age group say they want to move up on the job, compared with 66% of women without children, says the study of about 3,500 wage, salaried and self-employed workers and small-business owners, released Thursday by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute in New York.

　　That compares with a marked difference among these groups as recently as 2002, when only 48% of young working mothers, compared with 66% of men and 61% of young women without children, said they wanted to climb the career ladder.

　　Young women's motivation for saying they want more responsibility on the job can't be determined from the data. One factor is that women are shouldering a larger breadwinning role at home, either by necessity or choice; females in dual-earner couples now provide an average 44% of household income, up from 39% in 1997, the study says. And husbands are taking on more workload at home; 31% of women say their spouses do half or most of the child care, up from 21% in 1992. Women also say men are gradually shouldering more of the cooking and cleaning.

　　The study asked questions about work and family roles, attitudes about home life and the workplace, and other worklife issues. While many surveys dabble in these issues, this study is unusually rigorous, gauging answers to the same questions periodically since 1977 through a random telephone survey of a nationally representative sample.

　　In another shift, men of all ages now report work-family conflicts at a higher rate than women, suggesting the sexes are reaching new parity on this front too. While 34% of both men and women reported work-life conflicts in 1977, that percentage has risen by 11 percentage points to 45% among men, compared with a rise of only five points among women, to 39%.

　　The findings reflect a 'revolutionary change in attitudes and behaviors among both women and men,' says Ellen Galinsky, president of the institute. Generation Y, born after 1980, seems to be approaching equality in gender attitudes, accelerating likely pressure on employers to make career paths more flexible and offer such work-life supports as alternative scheduling.

　　Also, a broad shift in attitudes is lowering old barriers. Prejudice against working mothers is easing; today, 67% of men and 80% of women agree that employed women can be good mothers, the study says. This compares with 49% of men and 71% of women in 1977. People whose own mothers worked when they were growing up were much more likely to agree strongly that working moms can do just as good a job with their children as those who stay at home.

　　Earlier in this decade, a dip in the percentage of young mothers who also held jobs sparked much discussion of why women were 'opting out' of the work force. The 2002 dip in women's career ambition, also reflected in the survey, may have been linked to a sharp increase in overwork and job pressure following the dot-com bust, based on the institute's previous research on employee attitudes at the time, Ms. Galinsky says.

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　　职场上的性别角色在经过几十年的缓慢变化之后，从在职场获得晋升的意愿来看，新一代女性如今已经证明她们的职业“野心”不亚于男性。

　　根据对美国职场人士心态的一项长期研究显示，29岁以下的职场男性和女性中，分别都有大约三分之二的人表示他们希望承担更多的工作职责。这项独一无二的调查还表明，有孩子并不影响年轻女性的进取心；这个年龄段的母亲中有69%表示她们希望得到晋升，而没有孩子的女性这个比例是66%。纽约非盈利组织“家庭和工作研究会”(Families and Work Institute)上周四发表了相关研究报告，他们调查了大约3,500名劳动者，其中既有领取周薪或月薪者，也有自雇人员或小企业主。

　　上述比例与2002年的同项调查数字发生了很大变化，当时，有孩子的年轻职业女性中只有48%的人表示希望在职场上获得提升，而对男性和没有孩子的'女性，这个比例分别为66%和61%。

　　从调查数据上判断不出年轻女性说她们希望承担更多工作职责的动机。一个因素是，女性分担了更多养家糊口的压力，不论是出于自愿还是形势所迫。研究显示，在双职工家庭中，女性贡献的收入平均占44%，而1997年是39%。同时，双职工家庭中丈夫分担的家务也在增多；有31%的女性说，她们的配偶负担了一半甚至大部分照看孩子的任务，而1992年时这个数字是21%。女性被调查者还说，男子在煮饭和打扫卫生方面也做的越来越多。

　　调查还包括有关工作和家庭角色、对家庭生活和工作的态度以及其他工作、生活方面的问题。尽管许多其他调查也会涉及这类问题，但这项调查之严格可谓不同寻常。调查方从1977年以来定期对具有代表性的样本进行随机电话采访，并对被访者就同一个问题的回答进行统计。

　　另一个变化是，所有年龄段的男性现在反映工作与家庭存在冲突的比例比女性高，显示男性和女性在这方面实现了新的平衡。1977年，反映工作与家庭冲突的男性和女性比例都是34%，但现在，男性的这个比例上升到45%，也就是上升了11个百分点，而女性仅上升5个百分点，为39%。

　　家庭和工作研究会主席盖林斯基(Ellen Galinsky)说，调查结果反映出“男性和女性在态度和行为上均发生了革命性的变化。”八十年代以后出生的所谓“Y一代”似乎在性别态度上接近平等，这加大了雇主可能会感到的压力：他们需要让职业发展道路更灵活，并采取多种工作时间等缓解工作和家庭冲突的支持性措施。

　　此外，态度上的广泛改变也减少了一些传统的障碍。如今，对就业母亲的偏见少了，研究显示，有67%的男性和80%的女性认为，职业女性可以同样是个好妈妈。1977年时上述比例分别是49%和71%。在自己成长期间母亲在工作的被调查者更可能认同这样的观点：母亲工作不妨碍她们像全职妈妈一样照顾好子女的。

　　本世纪头几年，年轻妈妈就业比例有所下降的趋势引发了一场对女性为何选择放弃工作的大讨论。盖林斯基说，工作和家庭学会在2002年的这项系列调查中还发现，女性的职业“野心”有所下降，这或许跟当时互联网泡沫破灭后，过劳现象和工作压力急剧加重有关。

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