成功女性並不總是最佳榜樣
If Hillary Clinton wins the US presidential election in November, three of the world’s five largest economies will be led by women.
如果希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)贏得11月的美國總統選舉，那麼在世界五大經濟體中，三個經濟體的領導人都將是女性。
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, Theresa May, UK prime minister, and Mrs Clinton, have all been hailed as role models for women and girls.
德國總理安格拉•默克爾(Angela Merkel)、英國首相特里薩•梅(Theresa May)和希拉里，都已被譽爲婦女與少女的楷模。
But the singularity and precariousness of their success raises the question: are women automatically good examples for other women?
但是，她們成功的異常性和不穩定性引出瞭如下疑問：女性會自然而然成爲其他女性的好榜樣嗎？
The ability of role models, in portraits and more importantly in the flesh, to influence gender inequality is both encouraging and muddy, says Iris Bohnet, professor of public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
楷模——通過肖像和更重要的身體力行——影響性別不平等的能力既令人鼓舞，又有些含混，哈佛大學(Harvard University)肯尼迪學院(Kennedy School)的公共政策教授艾里斯•博內特(Iris Bohnet)說。
Some evidence on the power of role models is overwhelmingly positive.
有些關於楷模力量的證據是壓倒性正面的。
Ms Bohnet cites the Panchayati Raj act, a constitutional amendment in India introduced in 1993, which stipulated that village councils needed to reserve one-third of their seats, and one-third of their council leader positions, for women.
博內特引用了印度於1993年頒佈的一個憲法修正案——《潘查亞特製度法》(Panchayati Raj act)——該法規定，村委會應保留三分之一的席位、三分之一的領導崗位給女性。
Not only did the share of Indian local government posts held by women rise from 5 per cent in 1993 to 40 per cent by 2005, but the new role models the law created had a dramatic impact on families and younger women.
從1993年到2005年，在印度地方政府擔任職務的女性比例從5%上升至40%。同時，該法造就的新楷模對千家萬戶和年輕婦女產生了非常大的影響。
With the advent of female village leaders, the likelihood that a woman spoke up in a village meeting increased by 25 per cent.
隨着女性村領導登場，女性在村會議上發言的可能性提高了25%。
Villagers who had been exposed to at least two female chiefs in West Bengal overcame their initial bias against women as leaders and rated male and female leaders equally.
在西孟加拉邦(West Bengal)，至少見過兩名女長官的村民們克服了他們最初對女性領導的偏見，開始對男性和女性領導人平等看待。
This category of converts included parents, who were more likely to want their daughters to study past secondary school, thus eliminating the gender gap in aspirations.
改變觀念的羣體包括父母，他們更可能希望女兒在讀完中學後深造，由此消除了男女在抱負上的差距。
The Indian legislation, writes Ms Bohnet in her book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, showed that the act of seeing women lead increased women’s self-confidence and their willingness to compete in male-dominated domains, and it changed men’s and women’s beliefs about what an effective leader looked like.
博內特在她的書《什麼管用：用設計來實現性別平等》(What Works: Gender Equality by Design)中寫道，這部印度法律表明，看到婦女擔任領導職位，加強了婦女們的自信，使她們更願意在男性占主導地位的領域展開競爭，這改變了男人和婦女對於有效領導人是什麼樣子的觀念。
There is plenty of evidence from elsewhere in the world on the effectiveness of female role models.
世界其他地區也有大量證據證明了女性楷模的作用。
In the US, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission analysed data from more than 20,000 private-sector companies and found that, when the share of female top managers increased, the share of women in middle-management subsequently rose.
在美國，平等就業機會委員會(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)在分析了逾2萬家私營部門公司的數據後發現，當擔任高層管理人的女性比例提高時，擔任中層管理崗位的女性比例隨後也會提高。
The US research contains some less good news, though.
不過，美國的研究包含一些不太好的消息。
It found that the positive influence of women in top leadership positions on gender diversity at management level diminished over time, suggesting that women at the top play a positive yet transitory role in women’s career advancement.
研究發現，隨着時間的推移，擔任高層領導職位的女性對於管理層性別多元化的正面影響逐漸減小，這似乎表明，高層女性在女性職業進展方面發揮了一種積極但暫時的作用。
Richie Zweigenhaft, a professor of psychology at Guilford College in North Carolina, provides one possible explanation for this in his recent book on female and ethnic minority chief executives at Fortune 500 companies.
裏奇•威根哈福特(Richie Zweigenhaft)是北卡羅來納州吉爾福德學院(Guilford College)的心理學教授。他在最近一本有關財富500強(Fortune 500)女性和少數族裔CEO的書中對此提出了一個可能的解釋。
He suggests that the existence of a few trailblazers has allowed companies and political parties to become lazier in promoting women.
他提出，少量開拓者的存在，使得公司和政黨在提拔女性方面變得懈怠。
One of the ironic effects of the past rise in numbers of women at the top, Prof Zweigenhaft argues, may be that the heyday of diversity has come and gone.
威根哈福特教授認爲，高層女性人數過往的增長帶來的諷刺效應之一，可能是多元化的全盛時代來了又走了。
His study found that the number of white women, African-Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans appointed as the chief executives of Fortune 500 companies declined sharply in 2015.
他的研究發現，2015年，財富500強企業中白人女性、非裔、西語裔和亞裔美國人CEO人數銳減。
Now that a few women have made it to the top, there appears to be less, not more, pressure on boards to appoint them.
由於已經有一些女性進入最高層，因此董事會繼續任命女性的壓力似乎減小了，而不是增加了。
Such a development is itself open to alternative explanations.
這樣的發展本身可能有多種解釋。
There are just 21 women at the helm of Fortune 500 companies, meaning that even one fewer female chief executive constitutes a large percentage swing.
目前僅有21位女性執掌着財富500強企業，這意味着哪怕減少一位女性CEO也會產生較大的百分比波動。
In addition, the fact that women make up just 4 per cent of chief executives may not constitute enough of a critical mass for less senior women to aspire to.
此外，女性在CEO中僅佔4%，可能不足以構成讓級別較低的女性向往的關鍵多數。
Indeed, having a small number of highly successful women at the top can prove a double-edged sword.
的確，少數極爲成功的女性擔任最高職務可能是一把雙刃劍。
Anecdotal evidence suggests that if the women in leadership posts are overwhelmingly white, highly educated — and often childless — this can deter other women who do not fit these categories.
坊間證據似乎表明，如果身處領導層的女性絕大多數是受過高等教育的白人——而且往往沒有孩子——這可能嚇阻不符合這些特徵的其他女性。
The experience of much-written-about superwomen, such as fund managers Nicola Horlick and Helena Morrissey in the UK, or Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook in the US, can sometimes discourage as much as encourage those attempting to imitate their success.
新聞報道中常常提到的女超人——比如英國的基金經理妮古拉•霍利克(Nicola Horlick)和海倫娜•莫里西(Helena Morrissey)、或者美國的Facebook首席運營官謝里爾•桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)——既有可能鼓舞那些試圖效仿其成功的女性，有時也有可能讓後者泄氣。
Brenda Trenowden, chair of the 30% Club, which campaigns globally to increase female representation at senior corporate levels, acknowledges the problem.
在全球推動增加女性在企業高層任職的30%俱樂部(30% Club)的主席布倫達•特雷諾登(Brenda Trenowden)承認存在這一問題。
But she also proposes a solution, suggesting that more senior women need to be encouraged to talk authentically and frankly, warts and all about their rise to top positions.
不過她也提出了一個解決方案：需要鼓勵更多高層女性真誠、坦白、毫無保留地討論她們晉升至頂級職位的過程。
There is no normal for how to go about engineering success or what that might even look like; nor is there is one correct model for getting to the top and that needs to be visibly and candidly reflected in society, she says.
她稱，對於如何取得成功或者怎樣算成功，沒有什麼正常模式；也沒有什麼晉升至高層的正確模式，而那需要明顯而坦白地反映於社會。
Deborah Gillis, president of Catalyst, which campaigns to improve gender diversity at work, argues that the presence of more women in senior positions helps to break down the think-leader-think-male mindset.
致力於推進職場性別多元化的組織Catalyst的總裁德波拉•吉利斯(Deborah Gillis)認爲，更多女性出現在高級崗位有助於打破想到領導就想到男性的思維模式。
Ms Gillis points out that women such as Ms Merkel and Mrs Clinton often face biting judgments about their gender, experience, likeability and their appearance.
吉利斯指出，像默克爾和希拉里這樣的女性往往面對着外界對其性別、經驗、親和度和外表的尖刻評價。
Men who run for office or rise to lead companies are largely free from such criticism and benefit from long-held advantages in politics, business and society as a whole.
參加競選或晉升到掌門人位置的男性在很大程度上不會遭受類似批評，同時受益於男性在政界、商界和整個社會的長期優勢。
A critical mass of women at the top should slowly change that.
高層女性達到關鍵多數應該會慢慢改變這一現狀。
