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In some countries, gender equality remains far away. There are places where women aren't allowed to participate in government or public life, where women are denied education and remain illiterate, and places where women have to keep their hair and faces hidden, or they will risk terrible lashes, detention, or even execution. There are places where young, virgin girls, with no judicial process to protect them, are forced to marry old men and bear children against their will. There are places where women are not allowed to drive a car or sit in the same section as men when using public transit.
在有些国家，性别平等还远未实现。有些地方不允许女性参与政府工作或公共生活，不让女性接受教育以致她们仍是文盲；有些地方女人必须遮盖住头发和面容，否则就要面临可怕的鞭笞、拘役甚至被处死。也有些地方，年幼的少女没有司法程序的保护，被迫嫁给年老的男子并违背她们的意愿生育孩子。还有些地方不允许女人开车或在乘坐公共交通工具时与男人坐在同一区域。
In comparison, in some other parts of the world, the rights of women have grown tremendously. In the United States, modern women live downright luxurious lives compared to the Pilgrims in colonial times. And in the British Isles, modern women are essentially equal to men compared to the time when the early kings sat upon their mighty thrones. Feminists, men as well as women, have fought hard to overthrow outdated discriminatory practices and win rights we now take for granted, such as girls attending school, women gaining the voting ballot and running in electoral races for the Senate, women owning property, women in sales earning equal commissions as men, and women choosing whether or not to marry or have children. These rights have given women control over their own lives while increasing vastly the number of people in the workforce who discover new ideas and patent new inventions. Can you imagine life without female scientists, inventors, doctors, teachers, and writers?
相比之下，在世界其他一些地方，女性的权利已大大提升。在美国，与殖民时期的朝圣者相比，现代女性过着极其奢侈的生活。在英伦诸岛，现代女性与早先国王的统治时期相比，基本上已与男性一切平等。女权主义者，不论是男性还是女性，都曾奋力消除陈旧的歧视性做法，以赢得我们现在认为是理所当然的权利，比如女孩有机会上学、女性获得投票权并参与参议院议员席位的竞选、女性拥有财产、女性销售员挣得同男性一样的提成、女性有权选择是否结婚或生子。这些权利使得女性能够左右自己的生活，并极大增加了能够找到新点子、申请新发明专利的劳动者的数量。你能想象没有女科学家、女发明家、女医生、女教师或者女作家的生活吗？
With all the progress of the last decades, it can be hard to see that there is still work to be done, or to remember what was so difficult before. Modern women may raise a chorus of complaints that there are no confident men left, and blame feminism. A modem man may long for the days when a wife would stay home with a spatula and a sponge, cooking kidney beans and steak for dinner, fascinated by his work stories. However, he would be forgetting the need to make enough money to support his household alone.
有了过去几十年的进步，人们会很难看出在女权主义方面还有什么工作要做，也很难记得以前有多么艰难。现代女性可能会齐声抱怨，说现今再也没有真正自信的男人了，并因此谴责女权主义。现代男性会渴望以前那样的日子，那时妻子呆在家里拿着锅铲和海绵围着锅台转，做芸豆和牛排晚餐，还会入迷地听他讲工作中的故事，而此时，他却忘记了自己需要单独赚足够的钱养家。
