来源：《经济学人》
原文见刊日期：2022年3月12日
Women in business have broken three records of late. The number of female bosses in charge of Fortune 500 companies in America is at an all-time high of 41. In 2021 CVS Health, the country’s fourth-biggest firm by revenue, became the largest to be run by a woman. And for the first time, two giant businesses—Walgreens Boots Alliance, another chemist, and TIAA, a financial-services firm—are run by black women.
商界女性最近打破了三项记录。在美国，财富500强公司的女老板人数达到了历史最高的41人。2021年，美国营收排名第四的CVS健康公司成为由女性经营的最大公司。两家大型企业——沃博联，另一家连锁药房，以及TIAA，一家金融服务公司——第一次由黑人女性经营。
In America and other well-off places businesswomen are making strides. Their share of board seats is rising in most places. Female boardroom representation surged in the Netherlands and Germany after they introduced mandatory quotas. But laws aren’t everything. The British government’s voluntary targets have also boosted the share of women on the boards of FTSE 100 companies, from 12.5% a decade ago to nearly 40%. Investors who care about environmental, social and governance factors are increasingly pressing firms to treat male and female employees equally.
在美国和其他富裕的地方，商界女性正在取得长足的进步。在大多数地方，她们在董事会的席位比例都在上升。荷兰和德国在引入强制配额后，董事会中的女性比例大幅上升。但这并非都是法律的功劳。英国政府的自愿目标也提高了富时100指数公司董事会中的女性比例，从十年前的12.5%提高到近40%。关注环境、社会和公司治理因素的投资者正日益敦促企业平等对待男性和女性员工。
Still, businesswomen have a long way to go before they catch up with their male counterparts, especially in the upper reaches of corporate hierarchies, and in some respects trail their female colleagues in politics. Men still occupy more than two in three boardroom seats in America. In South Korea, they hog more than nine in ten. Women continue to earn less than their male colleagues. In America outcomes are worse still for women of colour, who make less than white women and are even more under represented in senior roles.
不过，商界女性要赶上男性同行还有很长的路要走，尤其是在公司高层，在某些方面也落后于政界女性。在美国，男性仍然占据着超过三分之二的董事会席位。在韩国，男性占了90%以上。女性的收入仍然低于男性同事。在美国，有色人种女性的情况更糟，她们的收入比白人女性少，在高级职位上的代表比例更低。
More troubling still, too many women are dropping off the corporate ladder altogether. Although remote work made it easier for some women to combine work with family chores, the pandemic has pushed a disproportionate number of them out of the workforce. Women’s labour-force participation in OECD countries declined from 65% before covid-19 first hit to 63.8% a year later. Stymying female advancement may be yet another insidious consequence of the virus.
更令人不安的是，太多的女性正从公司的晋升阶梯上掉下来。虽然远程工作使一些妇女更容易兼顾工作和家务，但这场大流行已不成比例地将女性挤出了劳动力市场。经合组织国家的女性劳动参与率从第一波疫情前的65%降至一年后的63.8%。阻碍女性进步可能是新冠疫情又一个隐伏的后果。