Hillary Clinton smashed one of the remaining glass ceilings in politics this week, when she became the first woman to secure her party’s nomination for US president.
希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)最近成为了首位被其所在政党提名为总统候选人的女性,打破了政坛剩余的玻璃天花板之一。
It has taken 227 years for a woman to get this far in a US election and the ascent of women on the corporate ladder has been almost as slow. There are still very few female chief executives, and women remain under-represented in senior business roles. Workplace sexism still exists.
就美国选举而言,女性花了227年才走到这一步,女性在企业阶梯上的晋升几乎同样缓慢。现在女首席执行官仍然非常少,高级业务职位中的女性比例依然较低。职场中的性别歧视仍然存在。
Recent events suggest the challenges facing women are particularly acute in media and technology companies.
最近的事件似乎表明,女性在媒体和科技公司面临的挑战尤其严峻。
When Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News Channel presenter, alleged that she had been sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, who ran the network, other women came forward alleging similar treatment by other executives. One woman told the New York Times this week that she had been afraid to complain. “There is a culture where, not that you accept it, you just deal with it,” she said.
当福克斯新闻频道(Fox News Channel)前主持人格蕾琴•卡尔森(Gretchen Carlson)指控她受到老板罗杰•艾尔斯(Roger Ailes)性骚扰的时候,其他女性纷纷站出来指控其他高管的类似做法。一位女性最近告诉《纽约时报》(New York Times),之前她不敢投诉。她说:“这里的文化是,有些事情你不一定接受,但你得忍受。”
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which owns Fox News, parted company with Mr Ailes last week after an internal investigation. Mr Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, now have two tasks: replacing Mr Ailes and reforming what appears to have been a boorish, macho culture at Fox News.
鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)的21世纪福克斯(21st Century Fox)上周在内部调查之后解聘了艾尔斯——福克斯新闻隶属21世纪福克斯旗下。默多克和他的儿子詹姆斯(James)和拉克伦(Lachlan)现在有两个任务:接替艾尔斯,并且改革福克斯新闻似乎存在的粗野的大男子主义文化。
Hiring more women to senior positions would help and is something that all media and technology companies should do. The US’s biggest media groups — Walt Disney, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, Time Warner, CBS and Viacom — are all led by men. It is the same story in tech: Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook all have male chief executives.
雇佣更多女性担任高级职位将会有所帮助,也是所有媒体和科技公司应该做的事情。华特迪士尼(Walt Disney)、康卡斯特(Comcast)、21世纪福克斯、时代华纳(Time Warner)、哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)以及维亚康姆(Viacom),这些美国最大的媒体集团全都由男性领导。科技公司同样如此:亚马逊(Amazon)、苹果(Apple)、Google以及Facebook的首席执行官全都是男性。
Yahoo, in the process of being acquired by Verizon, is an exception. But Marissa Mayer, its chief executive, spoke this week of how her efforts to revive the internet group had been plagued by sexist stereotyping. “I’ve tried to be gender-blind and believe tech is a gender-neutral zone but think there has been gender-charged reporting,” she said, referring to media coverage of her tenure at the group.
正在被Verizon收购的雅虎(Yahoo)是一个例外。但雅虎首席执行官玛丽萨•迈耶(Marissa Mayer)最近谈到她重振这家互联网集团的努力受到性别歧视观念的困扰。她在提到媒体报道她领导雅虎的工作时表示:“我曾经努力无视性别,相信科技是不带有性别色彩的领域,但我的确认为存在性别色彩浓厚的报道。”
Appointing more women to senior positions is unlikely to eradicate workplace sexism. But it would be a start. Media and technology companies create products and content for both sexes. Why should women not be appointed to run them too?
任命更多的女性担任高级职位不太可能根除职场的性别歧视,但这将是开始。媒体和技术公司为男性和女性创造产品和内容。为什么不应该任命女性执掌它们?
Long ago, the advertising industry woke up to the fact that women were responsible for most household spending decisions, so they tailored marketing messages to them.
很久以前,广告业猛然意识到,女性负责多数家庭支出决定,因此它们针对女性量身打造了营销信息。
Yet women continue to be under-represented at advertising agencies — particularly in senior creative roles.
然而,女性在广告公司的比例仍然较低,尤其是在高级的创意职位。
A group called The 3% Conference has been attempting to change that. It takes its name from an alarming statistic from a decade ago, when just 3 per cent of creative directors at advertising companies were women. It has had some success: by 2014, that proportion had risen to 11.5 per cent.
一个名为3% Conference的团体一直在努力改变这种局面。它的名字源于10年前令人警醒的统计数据,即广告公司只有3%的创意总监是女性。该团体取得了一些成功:到2014年,这一比例已上升至11.5%。
Glass ceilings continue to be smashed but the pace of change is slow.
玻璃天花板继续被打碎,但改变步伐迟缓。
J Walter Thompson, the 152-year-old ad agency now owned by WPP, recently appointed Tamara Ingramas chief executive — the first woman to have ever held the position.
有着152年历史的广告公司、如今隶属WPP旗下的智威汤逊(J Walter Thompson)最近任命塔玛拉•英格拉玛(Tamara Ingramas)担任首席执行官,这是有史以来首位担任该职的女性。
JWT’s workforce is 47 per cent female and the company has female regional chief executives in places such as Sri Lanka, Mexico and Canada. But Ms Ingram told the FT recently she would not be satisfied until half of all the company’s senior leadership positions were held by women. This is the right goal to set. Would a male chief executive set such a target? Possibly. But a woman is actually doing it.
智威汤逊的员工有47%是女性,而且该公司在斯里兰卡、墨西哥和加拿大等国的地区总监是女性。但英格拉玛最近向英国《金融时报》表示,她在公司半数高级领导职位由女性担任之前不会感到满意。这是应该设定的正确目标。一位男性首席执行官会设定此类目标吗?可能会。但一位女性实际上在设定这个目标。
Ms Ingram succeeded Gustavo Martinez as chief executive. He resigned this year after Erin Johnson, JWT’s head of communications, filed a lawsuit accusing him of an “unending stream of racist and sexist comments as well as unwanted touching and other unlawful conduct”.
英格拉玛接替古斯塔沃•马丁内斯(Gustavo Martinez)担任首席执行官。马丁内斯今年辞职,此前智威汤逊公关主管埃琳•约翰逊(Erin Johnson)对其提起诉讼,指控其“发布一系列种族主义和性别歧视言论,并存在不受欢迎的触摸行为以及其他非法行为”。
Mr Martinez has denied all the allegations. Still, the case has echoes of Mr Ailes’s departure from Fox News. JWT has moved on from the episode by appointing someone who wants to transform the outlook for women at the agency. As they set out to replace Mr Ailes, will Mr Murdoch and his sons do the same?
马丁内斯否认了所有指控。话虽如此,该案与艾尔斯从福克斯新闻离职有些类似。智威汤逊通过任命某位想要改变公司内女性前景的高管担任首席执行官,翻过了这一页。在他们物色接替艾尔斯的人选之际,默多克和他的儿子们会做同样的事情吗?