Womenomics 女性经济
How American women got stuck in the kitchen 美国女性为何走不出厨房？
The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook shows the cost of having no federal paid leave programme
国际货币基金组织（IMF）最新的《世界经济展望》报告点明了美国不施行联邦带薪假期体制的成本
Apr 13th 2018 byM.S.R. | WASHINGTON, DC
IN 1986, “American Women in Transition”, a study by the Russell Sage Foundation, described the vast changes then afoot in American society. Some twenty years previously, it says, in what sometimes reads as old-fashioned language, few mothers had jobs; by the early 1980s “three fifths of wives with school-age children were working outside the home”. This extraordinary change was reflected in the popular culture of the 1980s, from movies like “Working Girl” and “9 to 5” to books like Helen Gurley Brown’s “Having it all”.
1986年，拉塞尔.塞奇基金会的研究报告《转型中的美国女性》（American Women in Transition）描述了当时美国社会正经历的巨大变化。该研究以一种读起来似乎过时的语言称：此前二十年左右没几位做妈妈的出去工作；而到了20世纪80年代早期，“五分之三有学龄子女的人妻都会出去工作”。这种巨变也体现在了美国80年代的流行文化中，从电影《上班女郎》（Working Girl）、《朝九晚五》（9 to 5）到诸如海伦.古利.布朗的《拥有一切》（Having it all）书籍等等，都是如此。
Back then, America led most of the rich world in terms of the proportion of women who worked. In 1985, 70% of American women aged between 25 and 54 were in the labour market (either in work or looking for it). That compared with 57% in Australia and 59% in Germany. But the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook, published this week, shows how these countries have caught up with America and overtaken it. While the proportion of “prime age” women in the labour market in the United States is now 74%, in Australia it is 76% and in Germany it is 83%.
彼时，美国在职场女性比例这一领域是发达国家中的排头兵。1985年，年龄介于25-54岁之间的美国女性有70%身处职场（在职或谋职）；这一比例相较于澳大利亚是57%、德国是59%。但是根据发布于本周的IMF最新一期《世界经济展望》报告，这些国家已经赶上乃至超越了美国：如今美国“适龄女性”身处职场的比例是74%，而澳大利亚是76%、德国83%。
It is not surprising that the rate at which American women entered the labour market slowed (it hit a peak in 2000). The last three decades of the twentieth century saw dramatic changes as American women surged into the organised jobs market. Since then, other countries have been catching up. Not all women need or want to work; Sweden, which had a higher proportion of working women than America in 1985, has around the same proportion now as it did then. But it seems unlikely that the proportion of women in America whowantto work has settled at a rate below that of other countries.
其实美国女性职场比率的放缓在意料之内（它在2000年冲到了顶峰）。20世纪的后三十年见证了随着美国女性涌入有序就业市场而来的巨大变革。自此，其它国家一直在奋起直追。但是并非所有女性都需要或者想要工作。比如在1985年职场女性比例高于美国的瑞典，如今的情况和当年相差无几。但似乎美国女性中想要工作的比例不可能低于其它国家。
Rather, America seems to have fallen behind because it has failed to introduce policies that make it easier for women to stay in work after they have had children. In its report the IMF says that the “striking difference” between women in European countries and America “can be attributed to the more supportive policy changes in Europe.” Its authors single out two policy areas in particular: access to affordable care for both young children and old people and paid parental leave.
确切来说，美国落伍的原因似乎在政策层面：它没有施行相关政策让职场女性生育后继续工作的处境更为轻松。IMF在其报告中指出：欧洲国家和美国女性之间的“惊人差距”“可以归因于欧洲推行了更多的支持性政策。”报告作者突出了两大政策：针对儿童和老年的平价医疗、带薪育婴假。
The difference on paid leave is especially stark. European countries have introduced and expanded laws that require companies to give parents paid time off after the birth or adoption of a child. Employers in the EU must offer a minimum paid maternity leave of 14 weeks; many countries mandate for more than that and also provide paternity leave, thus reducing companies’ reluctance to employ women of childbearing age. America has remained almost the only developed country to have no national paid parental leave at all.
带薪假期上的差距尤其显著。欧洲国家推行并且扩充相关法律，要求公司为新生儿或新领养幼子的父母提供带薪假期。欧盟国家的雇主必须提供最少为14周的带薪产假；很多国家的要求不止14周，并且提供陪产假，从而提高公司雇佣育龄女性的意愿。美国几乎是唯一一个完全没有国家性带薪育婴假的发达国家。
The IMF’s report emphasises the role policies like these can play in the health of economies. Big demographic changes in rich countries—fewer babies, more old people— will put greater pressure on those of working age. But it points out that almost everywhere, men aged between 25 and 54 are dropping out of the workforce, a development it attributes in part to automation. The decline is particularly marked in America, where the proportion of men in this age range in the labour market has fallen from 94% in 1985 to 88.5% today. No one knows quite why that has happened; the IMF suggests the country’s unusually high rates of incarcerationas well as the opioid crisiscould play a part. But it makes women’s participation in the workforce particularly important. One study found that America’s GDP would have been 11% smaller in 2012 if the hours worked by women had remained at their 1970s levels.
IMF的报告强调了此类政策对经济体健康状况的影响。富裕国家人口结构的大变动（新生人越来越少，老年人越来越多）会给工龄人口带来更大的压力。但是报告也指出：几乎世界各地年龄介于25-54岁的男性都存在退离职场的现象，报告认为这种趋势的部分原因在于自动化。这种现象在美国特别明显，上述年龄段男性的职场比例从1985年的94%降至如今的88.5%。没人能给出此现象的确切原因；IMF认为美国一贯的高入狱率（rates of incarceration）和类鸦片药物危机（opioid crisis）都在原因之列。但这就凸显了女性工作参与度的重要性。一项研究发现：如果2012年美国女性的工作时间维持上世纪70年代的水平，该年年度GDP会缩水11%。
When will America catch up with the rest of the industrialised world and introduce national paid leave? Most Americans, both Democratic and Republican, would like it to. So do an increasing number of lawmakers, although conservative congressmen tend to consider the notion of paid leave an anti-business abomination. In 2016, Donald Trump became the first presidential nominee to tout a national paid family leave plan. His daughter Ivanka is now working with Senator Marco Rubio to try to build Republican support for it.
美国什么时候才能赶上其它发达国家并且推行国家性带薪假期呢？大多数美国人（民主党人和共和党人）都会欢迎这种变化；越来越多的立法者也是如此，尽管美国国会的保守派倾向认为带薪假期是反商业的，令人憎恶。2016年，唐纳德.特朗普成了首位呼吁国家性带薪育婴假方案的总统候选人，目前他的女儿伊万卡（Ivanka）正和参议员Marco Rubio共同尝试为此构建共和党支持体系。
关于类鸦片药物危机的网络链接：
1. 类鸦片药物危机的维基百科介绍：
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic
2. 美国政府签署正式文件对抗国内类鸦片药物危机的视频和相关内容：
https://www.whitehouse.gov/opioids/
本文章词汇：
womenomics女性经济／她经济
incarceration监禁、入狱
opioid类鸦片药物
abomination: N-COUNT If you say that something is an abomination, you think that it is completely unacceptable. 令人憎恶的事[正式]
