成功女性并不總是最佳榜樣

If Hillary Clinton wins the US presidential election in November, three of the world’s five largest economies will be led by women. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, Theresa May, UK prime minister, and Mrs Clinton, have all been hailed as role models for women and girls. But the singularity and precariousness of their success raises the question: are women automatically good examples for other women?

如果希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)贏得11月的美國總統(tǒng)選舉，那么在世界五大經(jīng)濟(jì)體中，三個經(jīng)濟(jì)體的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人都將是女性。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，都已被譽為婦女與少女的楷模。但是，她們成功的異常性和不穩(wěn)定性引出了如下疑問：女性會自然而然成為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(xué)(Harvard University)肯尼迪學(xué)院(Kennedy School)的公共政策教授艾里斯•博內(nèi)特(Iris Bohnet)說。

Some evidence on the power of role models is overwhelmingly positive. 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. 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.

有些關(guān)于楷模力量的證據(jù)是壓倒性正面的。博內(nèi)特引用了印度于1993年頒布的一個憲法修正案——《潘查亞特制度法》(Panchayati Raj act)——該法規(guī)定，村委會應(yīng)保留三分之一的席位、三分之一的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)崗位給女性。從1993年到2005年，在印度地方政府擔(dān)任職務(wù)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(chǎn)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. 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. 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. 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”.

隨著女性村領(lǐng)導(dǎo)登場，女性在村會議上發(fā)言的可能性提高了25%。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(lǐng)導(dǎo)的偏見，開始對男性和女性領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人平等看待。改變觀念的群體包括父母，他們更可能希望女兒在讀完中學(xué)后深造，由此消除了男女在抱負(fù)上的差距。博內(nèi)特在她的書《什么管用：用設(shè)計來實現(xiàn)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(dān)任領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職位，加強了婦女們的自信，使她們更愿意在男性占主導(dǎo)地位的領(lǐng)域展開競爭，這改變了男人和婦女對于有效領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人是什么樣子的觀念”。

There is plenty of evidence from elsewhere in the world on the effectiveness of female role models. 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.

世界其他地區(qū)也有大量證據(jù)證明了女性楷模的作用。在美國，平等就業(yè)機(jī)會委員會(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)在分析了逾2萬家私營部門公司的數(shù)據(jù)后發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)擔(dān)任高層管理人的女性比例提高時，擔(dān)任中層管理崗位的女性比例隨后也會提高。

The US research contains some less good news, though. 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.

不過，美國的研究包含一些不太好的消息。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，隨著時間的推移，擔(dān)任高層領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職位的女性對于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(yè)進(jìn)展方面發(fā)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. He suggests that the existence of a few trailblazers has allowed companies and political parties to become lazier in promoting women.

里奇•威根哈福特(Richie Zweigenhaft)是北卡羅來納州吉爾福德學(xué)院(Guilford College)的心理學(xué)教授。他在最近一本有關(guān)財富500強(Fortune 500)女性和少數(shù)族裔CEO的書中對此提出了一個可能的解釋。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”. 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. Now that a few women have made it to the top, there appears to be less, not more, pressure on boards to appoint them.

威根哈福特教授認(rèn)為，高層女性人數(shù)過往的增長帶來的“諷刺效應(yīng)”之一，可能是“多元化的全盛時代來了又走了”。他的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，2015年，財富500強企業(yè)中白人女性、非裔、西語裔和亞裔美國人CEO人數(shù)銳減。由于已經(jīng)有一些女性進(jìn)入最高層，因此董事會繼續(xù)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. 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. 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.

這樣的發(fā)展本身可能有多種解釋。目前僅有21位女性執(zhí)掌著財富500強企業(yè)，這意味著哪怕減少一位女性CEO也會產(chǎn)生較大的百分比波動。此外，女性在CEO中僅占4%，可能不足以構(gòu)成讓級別較低的女性向往的“關(guān)鍵多數(shù)”。

Indeed, having a small number of highly successful women at the top can prove a double-edged sword. 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.

的確，少數(shù)極為成功的女性擔(dān)任最高職務(wù)可能是一把雙刃劍。坊間證據(jù)似乎表明，如果身處領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層的女性絕大多數(shù)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征的其他女性。

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(jīng)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，有時也有可能讓后者泄氣。

Brenda Trenowden, chair of the 30% Club, which campaigns globally to increase female representation at senior corporate levels, acknowledges the problem. 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. 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.

在全球推動增加女性在企業(yè)高層任職的“30%俱樂部”(30% Club)的主席布倫達(dá)•特雷諾登(Brenda Trenowden)承認(rèn)存在這一問題。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。她稱，對于如何取得成功或者怎樣算成功，沒有什么“正常模式”;也沒有什么晉升至高層的“正確”模式，“而那需要明顯而坦白地反映于社會”。

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. 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. 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. A critical mass of women at the top should slowly change that.

致力于推進(jìn)職場性別多元化的組織Catalyst的總裁德波拉•吉利斯(Deborah Gillis)認(rèn)為，更多女性出現(xiàn)在高級崗位有助于打破“想到領(lǐng)導(dǎo)就想到男性”的思維模式。吉利斯指出，像默克爾和希拉里這樣的女性往往面對著外界對其性別、經(jīng)驗、親和度和外表的“尖刻”評價。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，同時受益于男性在政界、商界和整個社會的長期優(yōu)勢。高層女性達(dá)到關(guān)鍵多數(shù)應(yīng)該會慢慢改變這一現(xiàn)狀。