不公平的人類 女性憑啥不如男性大綱

Women have made much progress in gaining equality in work and life over the past half century. In many developed countries such as the US and the UK, women now earn more college and graduate degrees than men do. Women make up half the workforce and are closing the gap in middle management.

過去的半個世紀裏，女性工作和生活上的地位變得更加平等。在英美等發達國家，上大學並且拿到學位的女性甚至比男性還要多。公司裏，一半的員工都是女性，而中等管理層中男女比例的差距也日益減小。

But however hard women work, it is the men around them who continue to get promoted faster and be paid more. In both the corporate and the political worlds, women are nearly absent from the top positions.

然而，不論女性如何努力工作，她們身邊的男性總能更快晉升，獲得更多薪酬。不論在商界還是在政界，女性幾乎一直被排除在最高領導層之外。

It has been argued that women’s maternal instinct makes it harder for them to find a balance between their home and work lives. Other commentators say cultural and institutional barriers hinder female success. But according to a latest best-seller, all these arguments miss something more basic: women’s lack of confidence.

有人認爲，女性的母性本能讓她們很難平衡家庭與工作。而另一些評論者則表示，文化和社會習俗的壁壘纔是女性事業成功的攔路虎。但是，在最近的一部暢銷書中，作者卻認爲所有這些觀點都忽略了一個最基本的原因：女性本身缺乏自信。

The book, tilted The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance, is co-authored by distinguished women journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. Success depends as much on confidence as competence, according to Kay and Shipman, and there is “a vast confidence gap that separates the sexes”.

在這本名爲《信心代碼：女性應該掌握的自信科學與藝術》中，兩位作者——同時也是出類拔萃的女性記者——凱蒂•肯和克萊爾•希普曼認爲，自信和競爭力一樣對成功都至關重要，而男女性別之間卻存在“巨大的信心差異”。

In two decades of covering American politics as journalists, Kay and Shipman have interviewed some of the most influential women in the country. In their jobs and lives, they walk among women anyone would assume to be brimming with confidence. And yet their experience suggests many of these women are full of self-doubt.

在二十年的美國政治記者生涯中，肯與希普曼曾經採訪過美國一些最具影響力的女性。她倆曾接觸到了很多人們眼中信心滿滿的女性，但多年的經驗讓肯與希普曼發現，即使在這些女性中，也有很多人對自己充滿懷疑。

High expectations

期待過高

Even Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told the writers: “There are still days I wake up feeling like a fraud, not sure I should be where I am.”

就連Facebook的首席運營官雪莉•桑德伯格都曾在書中對作者坦言，“即使現在，我有時還是會一覺醒來覺得上天在耍我，並且懷疑自己應不應該待在現在的位置。”

In a feature story in The Atlantic, Kay and Shipman say that conversations like this inspired them to write the book. After expansive research, they found that, compared with men, women don’t consider themselves as ready for a promotion until they meet 100 percent of the requirements; and they generally underestimate not only their abilities but also their performance.

在《大西洋月刊》的一篇專題報道中，肯與希普曼說，正是上面這樣的對話讓她們萌生了寫作本書的想法。在經過大量調查研究之後，她們發現：與男性不同，女性覺得自己只有達到了所有要求才算爲升職做好了準備；而女性不僅普遍低估了自己的能力，而且對自己的表現也缺乏信心。

According to The New York Times, in one recent British study, a business school professor asked students how much they would deserve to earn five years after graduation. The women’s estimates were 20 percent lower than the men’s.

而在《紐約時報》最近披露的一項英國研究中，某商學院的教授問他的學生，覺得自己畢業五年後應該掙多少錢？結果，女生給出的答案要比男生低20%。

The writers point out that a lack of confidence is behind a number of familiar female habits. For example, many women have the tendency to take the blame when things go wrong, while crediting circumstance — or other people — for their successes.

作者指出，導致女性缺乏信心的原因在於她們一些常見的工作習慣。比如，許多女性在出問題時，總喜歡責怪自己，而將自己的成功歸功於環境或他人。

Perfectionism is another confidence killer, the writers point out. Women don’t answer questions until they are totally sure of the answer. They don’t submit a report until they’ve edited it a thousand times.

作者還認爲，完美主義是另一個“信心殺手”。如果沒有百分之百的把握，女性一般不會回答問題；不經過一遍遍修改，她們也不會遞交報告。

In short, because women think they’re less competent than they really are, they’re also less self-confident than they should be. It’s a vicious circle.

簡而言之，正是因爲女性低估了自己的競爭力，導致她們缺乏信心，從而形成惡性循環。