新奇事件簿 少的可怜的女性工程师（在线收听）

A new report says less than ten per cent of Britain's engineers are women. This is the lowest figure of all European countries. Vince Cable, the UK Business Secretary, told reporters that this would be an "enormous problem for years to come". He said one of the biggest areas that needed more women was in computer science. Many women graduate from university with degrees in computer science, so Mr Cable did not understand why there were so few female computer engineers. He suggested that many companies had a "psychological barrier" against women becoming engineers. He said: "Half of all state schools don't have a single girl doing physics. We are only tapping half the population."

一项新的研究表明英国女性工程师的数量少于10%。这是所有欧洲国家中数量最低的。英国商务大臣温斯·凯博对记者说未来几年，这将是一个不小的问题。他说在几个重大领域中，最需要女性的是计算机科学领域。许多女性都有计算机科学文凭，这让凯博先生很是不解，为什么电脑工程师的女性数量少之又少。他认为许多公司对女工程师存在心理障碍。他说：“在所有公立学校中，有一半学校的女学生不学习物理。我们只计算了人口总数的一半。”

The British government has started a new campaign to get more women into engineering. It is called "Tomorrow's Engineers Week" and started on November the 4th. Mr Cable said at the launch: "Engineering has a vital role to play in the future of UK industry. It is important that we act now to ensure businesses have access to the skills they require to enable them to grow." A spokesman for Siemens UK said Britain needed to "help young people understand how an engineering [training programme] can lead to a rewarding career". The campaign website said it would "showcase all the exciting businesses and industries…that rely on the work of creative engineers."

英国政府已经开始了鼓励更多女性投身工程的活动。该活动的名称叫做“未来工程师周”，开始于11月4日。凯博先生在开幕仪式上说：“工程学是未来英国工业的主要组成部分。更重要的是我们必须现在采取行动来确保商业能够渗透到他们所要求的技能之中，并能够让他们继续成长。”英国西门子发言人称英国需要帮助年轻人，让他们了解工程学（培训项目）将会是一个回报率颇高的事业。”活动官网称他们将展现出所有需要依靠创新型工程师所要完成的商业和工业项目。”