Female power

Female power

Across the rich world more women are working than ever before. Coping with this change will be

one of the great challenges of the coming decades

THE

economic

empowerment

of

women

across

the

rich

world

is

one

of

the

most

remarkable

revolutions of the past 50 years. It is remarkable because of the extent of the change: millions of

people

who

were

once

dependent

on

men

have

taken

control

of

their own economic

fates.

It

is

remarkable also because it has produced so little friction: a change that affects the most intimate

aspects

of

people’s

identities

has

been

widely

welcomed

by

men

as

well

as

women.

Dramatic

social change seldom takes such a benign form.

Yet even benign change can come with a sting in its tail. Social arrangements have not caught up

with economic changes. Many children have paid a price for the rise of the two-income household.

Many women

—

and indeed many men

—

feel that they are caught in an ever-tightening tangle of

commitments. If the empowerment of women was one of the great changes of the past 50 years,

dealing with its social consequences will be one of the great challenges of the next 50.

At the end of her campaign to become America’s first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton

remarked that her 18m votes in the D

emocratic Party’s primaries represented 18m cracks in the

glass

ceiling.

In

the

market

for

jobs

rather

than

votes

the

ceiling

is

being

cracked

every

day.

Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run some of the

world’s

bes

t

companies,

such

as

PepsiCo,

Archer

Daniels

Midland

and

W.L.

Gore.

They

earn

almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe.

Progress has not been uniform, of course. In Italy and Japan employment rates for men are more

than

20

percentage

points

higher

than

those

for

women

(see

chart

1).

Although

Italy’s

female

employment rate has risen markedly in the past decade, it is still below 50%, and more than 20

percentage points below those of Denmark and Sweden (chart 2). Women earn substantially less

than men on average and are severely under-represented at the top of organisations.

The change is dramatic nevertheless. A generation ago working women performed menial jobs and

were routinely subjected to casual sexism

—as “Mad Men”, a television drama a

bout advertising

executives

in

the

early

1960s,

demonstrates

brilliantly.

Today

women

make

up

the

majority

of

professional workers in many countries (51% in the United States, for example) and casual sexism

is for losers. Even holdouts such as the Mediterranean countries are changing rapidly. In Spain the

proportion of

young women in the labour force has now reached American levels. The glass is

much nearer to being half full than half empty.

What explains this revolution? Politics have clearly played a part. Feminists such as Betty Friedan

have

demonised

domestic

slavery

and

lambasted

discrimination.

Governments

have

passed

equal-rights

acts.

Female

politicians

such

as

Margaret

Thatcher

and

Mrs

Clinton

have

taught

younger women that anything is possible. But politics is only part of the answer: such discordant

figures

as

Ms

Friedan

and Lady

Thatcher

have

been

borne

aloft

by

subterranean

economic

and

technological forces.

The

rich

world

has

seen

a

growing

demand

for

women’s

labour.

When

brute

strength

mat

tered

more

than

brains,

men

had an

inherent

advantage. Now

that

brainpower

has

triumphed

the

two

sexes

are

more

evenly

matched.

The

feminisation

of

the

workforce

has

been

driven

by

the

relentless rise of the service sector (where women can compete as well as men) and the equally

relentless

decline

of

manufacturing

(where

they

could

not).

The

landmark

book

in

the

rise

of

feminism

was

arguably

not

Ms

Friedan’s

“The

Feminine

Mystique”

but

Daniel

Bell’s

“The

Coming of Post-

Industrial Society”.

Demand has been matched by supply: women are increasingly willing and able to work outside

the home. The vacuum cleaner has played its part. Improved technology reduced the amount of

time

needed

for

the

traditional

female

work

of

cleaning

and

cooking.

But

the

most

important

innovation has been the contraceptive pill. The spread of the pill has not only allowed women to

get married later. It has also increased their incentives to invest time and effort in acquiring skills,

particularly

slow- burning

skills

that

are

hard

to

learn

and

take

many

years

to

pay

off.

The

knowledge

that

they

would

not

have

to

drop

out

of,

say,

law

school

to

have

a

baby

made

law

school more attractive.

The

expansion

of

higher

education

has

also

boosted

job

prospects

for

women,

improving

their

value on the job market and shifting their role models from stay- at-home mothers to successful

professional women. The best-educated women have always been more likely than other women

to work, even after having children. In 1963, 62% of college-educated women in the United States

were in the labour force, compared with 46% of those with a high school diploma. Today 80% of

American women with a college education are in the labour force compared with 67% of those

with a high school diploma and 47% of those without one.

This

growing

cohort

of

university-educated

women

is

also

educated

in

more

marketable

subjects. In 1966, 40% of American women who received a BA specialised in education in college;

2%

specialised

in

business

and

management.

The

figures

are

now

12%

and

50%.

Women

only

continue to lag seriously behind men in a handful of subjects, such as engineering and computer

sciences, where they earned about one-fifth of degrees in 2006.

One

of

the

most

surprising things

about

this

revolution

is

how

little

overt

celebration

it

has

engendered.

Most

people

welcome

the

change.

A

recent

Rockefeller

Foundation/Time

survey

found that three-quarters of Americans regarded it as a positive development. Nine men out of ten

said they were comfortable with women earning more than them. But few are cheering. This is

partly

because

young

women

take

their

opportunities

for

granted.

It

is

partly

because

for

many

women work represents economic necessity rather than liberation. The rich world’s growing army

of single mothers have little choice but to work. A growing proportion of married women have

also discovered that the only way they can preserve their households’ living standards is to join

their husbands in the labour market. In America families with stay- at-home wives have the same

inflation- adjusted income as similar families did in the early 1970s. But the biggest reason is that

the revolution has brought plenty of problems in its wake.

Across the rich world more women are working than ever before. Coping with this change will be one of the great challenges of the coming

decades

在发达国家，比以往更多的女性正在工作。应对这一变化这将是今后几十年面临的重大挑战之一。

THE

economic

empowerment

of

women

across

the

rich

world

is

one

of

the

most

remarkable

revolutions

of

the

past

50

years.

It

is

remarkable

because of the extent of the change:

millions of people who were once dependent on

men

have taken control of their own economic

fates. It is

remarkable

also

because

it

has

pro

duced

so

little

friction:

a

change

that

affects

the

most

intimate

aspects

of

people’s

identities

has

been

widely

welcomed by men as well as women. Dramatic social change seldom takes such a benign form.

发达国家女性的经济赋权是过去五十年中最引人 注目的革命之一。它引人注目是因为变革的程度：成千上万曾经依靠男人的女人们掌握

了 自己的经济命

运

。还因为它几乎没怎么产生摩擦：一个影响人身 份最本质方面的变革受到男人们和女人们的普遍欢迎。巨大的社会变

革很少能有这样温和 的形式。

Yet even benign change can come with a sting in its tail. Social arrangements have not caught up with economic changes. Many children have paid

a price for the rise of the two-income household. Many women

—

and indeed many men

—

feel that they are caught in an ever-tightening tangle of

commitments. If the empowerment of women was one of the great changes of the past 50 years, dealing with its social consequences will be one of

the great challenges of the next 50.

但即使温和的变革也可以有带刺的尾巴。 社会配置没有跟上经济变化。许多孩子为双收入家庭的增加付出了代价。很多女性

-

事实上还有

很多男性

-

觉得自己被缠绕在一个越来越紧的

“

义务

< br>”

线团之中。

如果说女性赋权是过去

50

年中最伟大的变革之一，

那么应对其带来的社会

效应将是今后

50

年最巨大的挑战之一。

At the end of her campaign to become America’s first female president in 2008, Hillary Clinton remarked that her 1

8m votes in the Democratic

Party’s primaries represented 18m cracks

in the

glass ceiling[1]. In the

market

for jobs rather than

votes the ceiling

is bei

ng cracked every day.

Women now make up almost half of American workers (49.9% in October). They run som

e of the world’s best companies, such as PepsiCo, Archer

Daniels Midland and W.L. Gore. They earn almost 60% of university degrees in America and Europe.

在希拉里克林顿竞选美国首位女性总统的运动结束时，她评论说她的一千八百万民主党党内初选选票代表 了玻璃天花板的一千八百万次

粉碎。而每天在被打破着的，是工作机会的玻璃天花板。女 性几乎占了当今美国劳动力的半数（十月：

49.9%

）

。她们领导着一些世界最

好的公司，比如百事可乐，阿彻丹尼斯米德兰 （

AMD

）和戈尔公司（

W.L. G ore

）

。在美国和欧洲，大约

60%

的大学学位由女性获得。