評論
打印
Europe is not a gender-equality heaven.
歐洲并不是男女平等的天堂。
In particular, the corporate workplace will never be completely family-friendly until women are part of senior management decisions,
企業的職場尤其如此，如果女性不參與高層決策，企業職場將永遠不會徹底地為家庭著想，
and Europe's top corporate-governance positions remain overwhelmingly male.
但是絕大多數的歐洲頂級企業管理職位仍然是被男性所占據。
Indeed, women hold only 14 percent of positions on Europe corporate boards.
實際上，在歐企董事會中，女性董事所占比例僅為14％。
The Europe Union is now considering legislation to compel corporate boards to maintain a certain proportion of women — up to 60 percent.
現在，歐盟正在考慮建立法律來強制企業董事會維持一定的女性比例，這一比例會高達60％。
This proposed mandate was born of frustration.
提議這樣的法令實則是出于沮喪之舉。
Last year, Europe Commission Vice President Viviane Reding issued a call to voluntary action.
去年，歐委會副主席維維亞娜·雷丁發布了一項自愿采取行動的號召。
Reding invited corporations to sign up for gender balance goal of 40 percent female board membership.
雷丁邀請各家企業報名參加性別平衡目標--董事會女性成員比例達到40％。
But her appeal was considered a failure: only 24 companies took it up.
但是，她的呼吁被認為是失敗之舉：僅有24家公司接受了她的號召。
Do we need quotas to ensure that women can continue to climb the corporate ladder fairly as they balance work and family?
在女性平衡工作和家庭的同時，我們還需要采用定額的方式來確保她們持續地、公平地攀爬職場的階梯么？
"Personally, I don't like quotas," Reding said recently. "But I like what the quotas do."
最近，雷丁說到：“就個人而言，我不喜歡定額。但是，我喜歡定額達能辦到的事情。”
Quotas get action: they "open the way to equality and they break through the glass ceiling," according to Reding,
定額讓人們采取行動，按照雷丁的說法，它們“開辟了平等之路，突破了玻璃天花板”。
a result seen in France and other countries with legally binding provisions on placing women in top business positions.
法國和其他的一些國家制定了具有法律約束力條款讓女性進入企業高級職位，這些國家已經看到了上面提到的結果。
I understand Reding's reluctance — and her frustration.
我理解雷丁的勉強和她的沮喪。
I don't like quotas either; they run counter to my belief in meritocracy, government by the capable.
我也不喜歡各種定額，它們其與我精英管理的理念背道而馳。
But, when one considers the obstacles to achieving the meritocratic ideal,
但是，在人們考慮到實現完美的精英管理的制度會遇到諸多障礙時，
it does look as if a fairer world must be temporarily ordered.
就必須暫時通過法令來獲得一個更加公平的世界，確實看起來是這樣的。
After all, four decades of evidence has now shown that
要知道，四十年的證據現在已經表明：
corporations in Europe as well as the US are evading the meritocratic hiring and promotion of women to top position
歐洲和美國的企業一直在避開將女性招聘為精英或晉升到高層，
no matter how much "soft pressure" is put upon them.
不管受到多大“軟壓力”。
When women do break through to the summit of corporate power — as, for example, Sheryl Sandberg recently did at Facebook
當女性確實有所突破，站到了企業權利的制高點--比方說，正如臉譜公司的謝麗爾·桑德博格最近所做到的，
they attract massive attention precisely because they remain the exception to the rule.
這時她們會引起非常大的關注，原因恰恰就是她們是不合規則的例外。
If appropriate pubic policies were in place to help all women---whether CEOs or their children's caregivers--and all families,
如果有合適的公共政策可以幫助所有的女性(不管是首席執行官們，還是她們孩子的看護人們)和所有的家庭，
Sandberg would be no more newsworthy than any other highly capable person living in a more just society.
桑德博格就會和其他生活在公平社會那些有能力的人一樣，不具有報導價值了。
