2006年VOA标准英语-Women Bosses Still Face Battle for Acceptance

By Mil Arcega
Washington, D.C.
05 July 2006
 
Watch Boss Report

A movie about 'the man of steel' and another one about a high-fashion boss lifted Hollywood to its second highest box office results for a July 4 weekend. "Superman Returns" showed why Superman's still the greatest superhero of all time, raking in more than $52 million in U.S. theaters.

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The big surprise at the U.S. box office last weekend was "The Devil Wears Prada," a film about a tyrannical fashion editor, which grossed more than $27 million in its opening weekend. As VOA's Mil Arcega reports, the comedy about a very mean boss -- who just happens to be a woman -- pokes¹ fun at a very serious question. Are women bosses meaner than men bosses?

Tory Johnson   
  
Women are quickly gaining equal footing with men in the workplace. The U.S. Bureau of Labor² Statistics says 50 percent of managers and 23 percent of the nation's CEO's are women. A provocative³ new survey shows a majority of American women still prefer a mean male boss. In fact, a new survey on workplace attitudes by Lifetime Television, a cable TV network for women, found that three of every four American women who were questioned prefer taking orders from a man.

Tory Johnson, the founder⁴ and C.E.O. of the recruitment firm Women For Hire, says she's not surprised. "Oftentimes, women are harder on women because we expect something," she said. "We go in with the expectation that she's one of me; she's going to be my friend. We're going to be girlfriends and in fact, it's not true."

 
Gerry Laybourne 
  
Gender⁵ stereotypes⁶ about forceful leaders can also hamper⁷ a woman's rise to the top. Gerry Laybourne manages a staff of 250 people. "We are raised to be good girls. We're raised to not ruffle⁸ feathers," she said. "But the truth is, we don't build businesses by being accommodating.  Sometimes I think when we are direct, we are perceived as, you know, the b-word. That's not right."

The advocacy group National Organization for Women says women still earn on average about 76 percent of men earn.

 
Kallee Medhurst 
  
Kallee Medhurst, a manager at a Washington D.C. hi-tech firm, says pay equity⁹ is improving. Medhurst says mean bosses can come in all shapes and sizes. "I think that anyone can be hard to work with, so I don't see the gender roles having as much impact as you usually have with stereotypes. I mean I've worked with difficult male bosses and difficult female bosses," she said.

For those who may not want to work with a female boss after watching "The Devil Wears Prada," Meryl Streep says her role model for the character was a man.

1 pokes   

v.伸出( poke的第三人称单数 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• He pokes his nose into everything. 他这人好管闲事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Only the tip of an iceberg pokes up above water. 只有冰山的尖端突出于水面。 来自辞典例句

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。

8 ruffle   

v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边

参考例句：

• Don't ruffle my hair.I've just combed it.别把我的头发弄乱了。我刚刚梳好了的。
• You shouldn't ruffle so easily.你不该那么容易发脾气。

9 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。