March is Women’s History Month in the United States, an opportunity to examine how far women have come and the areas where there is still work to be done. One of these areas is employment and income, according to a recent report released by the White House.
在美国，3月是妇女历史月，这是一个检验妇女状况有多大进步以及还有那些方面有待改进的机会。据白宫不久前发表的一份报告，一个有待改进的地方是就业和收入方面。
"Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being" offers a look at the full measure of a woman’s life.
这份报告的题目是《美国妇女：社会和经济福祉指标》。报告对妇女的生活做了一个全面展示。
"It’s the first comprehensive federal report of this nature since President Kennedy appointed Eleanor Roosevelt in the early 1960s to do a report on women," says Rebecca Blank, undersecretary of economic affairs, adding the new report covers five main areas of women’s lives. "It brings together data focusing on families, education, income and employment, health, and crime and violence, and really highlights the trends of what’s happening in women’s lives across all of those domains over the last 20 to 30 years."
主管经济事务的副部长吕贝卡.布兰克说：“自从肯尼迪总统1960年代早期委派埃里诺.罗斯福起草一份妇女问题报告以来，这是第一份这种性质的全面的联邦报告。”布兰克介绍说，新报告涵盖妇女生活的5大方面，“它汇集了关于家庭、教育、收入及就业、健康、犯罪和暴力。报告并且突出了过去二、三十年在所有那些领域妇女生活中出现的趋势。”
Compiling data from a variety of federal agencies, Blank says, revealed both positive and negative trends. Women are less likely than in the past to be the victims of violent crimes, including homicide. Women are marrying later and having fewer children than in the past. They make up 51 percent of the general population, and 57 percent of Americans over 65. Women are more likely than men to face health problems such as arthritis, obesity and depression… and are less likely to suffer from heart disease and diabetes. The report highlights significant improvement in the field of education.
布兰克说，汇编来自各联邦机构的资料显示了正反两面的趋势。妇女不像以往那样易于沦为谋杀等暴力犯罪的受害者。妇女现在结婚较晚，生孩子较少。妇女在总人口中占51%，在65岁以上美国人口中占57%。妇女比男人更可能有关节炎、肥胖症和忧郁症等健康问题。她们患心脏病和糖尿病的可能性比男性小。
"There is good news in this report that suggests that women, their educational rates, are growing faster than men's," says Blank. "In fact, if you look at young women, they are graduating from college at a higher rate than young men right now in the United States. That’s true among all race and ethnic groups, not just white women."
布兰克说，报告着重介绍了在教育领域的较大改善：“报告里的好消息是，妇女受教育率的增长比男人更快。事实上，在今天的美国，年轻妇女的大学毕业率比年轻男人高。在所有种族群体都是这样，不仅仅是白人妇女。”
But women’s advancement in education hasn’t translated into income equality in the workplace.
然而，妇女在教育方面的进步并没有转换成在工作场所收入上的平等。
"One reason is that they are not going into the kind of fields that are high in income producing," says Valerie Jarrett, chairwoman of the White House Council on Women and Girls, who adds that the Obama Administration wants to eliminate that wage gap. "So the president, since early on in his administration, has had an effort to encourage women and girls to go into science and technology and engineering and math."
白宫妇女和女孩委员会主席法勒里.贾雷特说：“一个原因是，她们没有进入那种高收入领域。”奥巴马政府想要消除工资差别。她说：“所以，总统自他就任初期以来就一直努力鼓励妇女和女孩进入科学、技术、工程和数学领域。”
There are also other reasons for the pay inequity.
宾夕法尼亚州立大学阿尔图那分校妇女学副教授李.安.德鲁斯指出，工资不平等还有其他原因。
"When women accept a position, they often don’t negotiate the beginning salary in the same way that a man does," says Lee Ann De Reus, associate professor of women’s studies at Penn State Altoona. "This report also indicates that once women have a job, they are not likely as men to negotiate for salary increases over the years. Also, you have a lot of women who are working part time. So there are multiple reasons why women are still trying to balance work and family in a way that men are not. Part of that gets back to what it is that we think a man’s role is in the society and what we think a woman’s role is in the society."
她说：“妇女接受一个职位时，往往不像男人那样提出起薪要求。报告还显示，妇女一旦有了工作，她们不大像男人那样过一段时间就要求加薪。还有许多妇女做兼职。所以，有很多原因，使得妇女仍然要努力在工作和家庭之间取得平衡，而男子就不需要这样做。这部分又得归结于我们如何看待男女在社会上的角色。”
De Reus hopes the "Women in America" report will highlight how the issues facing women today impact children, families and society as a whole.
德鲁斯希望这份报告将突出当今妇女面临的问题如何影响孩子、家庭和整个社会。
"The bottom line is that we all win. The country wins when we’re taking care of its citizens. I think with this report indicates that we’ll do better as a nation and our future will be brighter, if we start attending to the needs of women. It will only benefit all of us."
她说：“底线是我们都赢。当我们照料国家的公民时，国家才会赢。我认为，这份报告要表明的是，如果我们开始关注妇女的需要，我们国家将会更好，我们的未来会更加光明。这将有利于我们全体。”
The authors hope the information they’ve gathered in the "Women in America" report will translate into policies and initiatives to help women move forward and prepare girls for a life that’s better than what their mothers and grandmothers had.
报告作者们希望，这份美国妇女问题报告中汇集的资料将转换成政策和计划，帮助妇女朝前走，帮助女孩子们做好准备，迎接比她们的母亲和祖母的生活更好的明天。 |