【双语】为什么美国至今没有女总统？
Over 70 Nations Have Been Led by Women. So Why Not the U.S.?
为什么美国至今没有女总统？
November 11, 2016
2016年11月11日
为什么美国至今没有女总统？
November 11, 2016
2016年11月11日
LONDON – Hillary Clinton got closer than any American woman to the nation’s top job, but her loss this week has thrown a spotlight back onto the question: Why has the United States lagged behind so many countries around the world in choosing a female leader?
伦敦——希拉里•克林顿任何美国女性都要更接近这个国家的首脑职务，但她本周的失败令下面这个问题重新引起关注：为什么美国在选择女性担任领导人方面落后于世界上的许多国家？
Tiny Sri Lanka became the first to shatter the political gender barrier more than a half-century ago, back when that island nation was known as Ceylon. Its giant neighbor, India, followed a few years later.
之前，小小的斯里兰卡成为第一个在政治方面打破性别壁垒的国家，当时这个岛国的名字还叫锡兰。几年后，它的巨大邻国印度也有了女性领导人。
Since then women have attained top leadership posts – president, prime minister or its equivalent – in more than 70 countries in Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. Today women run two of Europe’s most powerful nations, Angela Merkel in Germany and Theresa May in Britain. So why not the United States?
从那以后，女性在欧洲、拉美和亚太地区的70多个国家担任了最高领导职位――总统、总理或同等职位。如今，欧洲两个最强大的国家都由女性领导――德国的安吉拉•默克尔和英国的特丽莎•梅。那么美国为什么不行呢？
Historians have offered a range of reasons. Many of the earlier women’s pathways were eased because their husbands or fathers were autocratic or charismatic leaders first. Some were chosen via parliamentary deal-making, not direct elections. Others were initially tapped as temporary leaders.
历史学家提出了一系列理由。许多早期的女性通往最高权力的道路之所以顺畅，是因为她们的丈夫或父亲是独裁者或有魅力的领导人。有些女性领导人上任是通过议会交易，而不是直接选举。还有一些女性最初是作为临时领导上任。
Some scholars theorize that European democracies may view women as more suited to high political office because their governments are known for generous social-welfare programs, something that seems maternal. In contrast, the president of the United States is primarily seen as commander in chief, which is a frame more difficult for women to fit into.
一些学者表示，欧洲民主政体可能认为妇女更适合最高的政治职务，因为他们的政府以慷慨的社会福利计划而著称，这似乎更像母亲的角色。相比之下，美国总统更主要是被视为总司令，对于女性来说，这是一个更难以适应的框架。
“America is still seen as the policeman of the world, the guardian of the world, and we still have a very gendered version of what leadership means,” said Laura A. Liswood, secretary-general of the United Nations Foundation’s Council of Women World Leaders, a network of current and former female prime ministers and presidents. “Not only do we have to be liked, we also have to be tough.”
“美国仍被视为世界警察与世界的守护者，对于领袖的涵义，我们仍然有着非常性别化的观念，”联合国基金会世界妇女领袖理事会秘书长劳拉•里斯伍德说，该机构是一个为现任及前任女首相及女总统设立的组织，“我们不仅要受人喜爱，我们还必须强硬。”
Sue Thomas, a senior research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Santa Cruz, California, said that unlike political leadership posts elsewhere, the U.S. presidency “is seen as a very masculine institution that for historical reasons is extremely hard for a female to approach.”
加利福尼亚州圣克鲁兹的太平洋研究与评估学院的高级研究员苏•托马斯说，不同于世界其他地方的政治领袖职位，美国总统“由于历史原因，被视为一个非常男性化的职位， 对女性来说，非常难以接近”。
Gender was never far from the surface in the protracted presidential campaign, but experts cautioned against seeing the election as merely a referendum on the idea of a female president.
在漫长的总统竞选中，性别问题始终都在，但专家告诫说，不要将选举看作是对女性能否担任总统这一观念的全民公决。
“It’s hard to build a generalization about women candidates based on Hillary Clinton,” said Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at Oxford University. “She is such a special case and unique figure, having been around for so long. Did people vote against her because she was a woman or because her name is Clinton? Of course it could be both.”
“很难以希拉里•克林顿为基础，建立对女性候选人的概述，” 牛津大学欧洲研究教授蒂莫西•加顿•阿什说。“她是一个特例，是一个非常独特的人物，她已经活跃了很久。人们投票反对她是因为她是女人，还是因为她名字里的克林顿？当然可能两者兼有。”
Still, many experts see an underlying bias that has discouraged American women from seeking political office, impeding the flow of potential female presidential candidates.
然而，许多专家仍然看到一种潜在的偏见，阻碍了美国女性谋求政治职位，也阻碍了潜在的女性总统候选人持续出现。
Even after the ratification in 1920 of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, some states restricted their right to be candidates; Oklahoma did not allow women to seek executive office until 1942.
甚至在授予女性投票权的第19修正案于1920年批准之后，一些州还是限制了她们成为候选人的权利；俄克拉荷马州直到1942年才允许女性谋求担任行政职务。
“What we have in the United States is a pipeline problem,” said Kathleen Dolan, chairwoman of the department of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Not enough women in the high-visibility, high-credibility offices. Not enough women running for school boards, county councils.”
“美国存在通道方面的问题，”威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校政治学系的系主任凯瑟琳•多兰说。“没有足够多的女性获得知名度高、信誉度高的职位。没有足够多的女性竞逐学校董事会、县议会的职位。”
The United States ranks 97th among 193 nations worldwide in the percentage of women in the lower house of Congress, according to data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Six of the 50 state governors are women, as are 20 of 100 U.S. senators.
根据各国议会联盟编纂的数据，就众议院的女议员比例而言，美国在全世界的193个国家中名列第97位。
The earliest examples of female leaders in modern politics abroad – as in the United States – derived from family relationships.
与美国类似，在国外，现代政坛中最早出现的女性领导人都是借助家庭关系上位的。
Take Sirimavo Bandaranaike, that pioneer leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. She got into politics after the assassination of her husband, and not only became the world’s first female head of state in 1960 but also served two more times, from 1970-77 and 1994-2000. (She is also the mother of Sri Lanka’s only female president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, who served from 1994-2005.)
以斯里兰卡自由党早期领导人西丽玛沃•班达拉奈克为例。她于丈夫遇刺身亡后开始从政，不仅在1960年成为世界第一位女性国家元首，还在1970—1977年以及1994—2000年两度重新担此重任（此外，她是斯里兰卡唯一女总统钱德里卡•库马拉通加夫人的母亲，任职时间为1994—2005年）。
In 1966, Indira Gandhi became the first female prime minister of India, the world’s largest democracy. She was, of course, the daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She held the office until 1977 and then again from 1980-84, when she was assassinated by her bodyguards. Four years later in neighboring Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, another daughter of a former prime minister, became the first woman to head a Muslim-majority country.
1966年，英迪拉•甘地成为了世界上最大的民主之国家——印度的首位女总理。当然了，她是印度首任总理贾瓦哈拉尔•尼赫鲁的女儿。她在这个职位上一直干到了1977年，随后又于1980年卷土重来，直至1984年遭自己的保镖刺杀身亡。四年后，在印度的邻国巴基斯坦，另一名前总理的女儿贝娜齐尔•布托，成为第一位领导一个以穆斯林为主的国家的女性。
Gandhi’s ascent is widely regarded as a seminal event in the history of women in politics. She displayed toughness in war, ordering the invasion of Pakistan in support of the creation of Bangladesh, and decreed martial law when unrest and charges of corruption threatened to topple her administration.
甘地的崛起被普遍视为女性参政史上一个有着巨大影响的事件。她曾在战争中展现出强硬的姿态，为了支持孟加拉建国而下令入侵巴基斯坦；她还曾在动乱和腐败指控有可能让自己领导的政府被推翻之际下令戒严。
Another stereotype-defying woman leader was Golda Meir, who was prime minister of Israel when war erupted in 1973. She was known for pithy quotes about women in politics. “Women’s liberation is a just a lot of foolishness,” she once said. “It’s the men who are discriminated against. They can’t bear children.”
另一位打破刻板印象的女性领导人是果尔达•梅厄，1973年战争爆发时，她是以色列的总理。她以关于女性参政的精辟言论闻名。“妇女解放是一个非常愚蠢的说法，”她曾经说道。“男人才是受到歧视的一方。他们不能生孩子。”
Perhaps the best known modern female wartime leader was Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister, who was known as “the Iron Lady.” Europe’s first elected head of government, Thatcher ordered Britain’s military into war against Argentina in 1982 over islands that Britain called the Falklands and Argentina the Malvinas.
现代史上名声最大的战时女性领导人，是有“铁娘子”之称的英国前首相玛格丽特•撒切尔。作为欧洲第一位经选举产生的政府首脑，撒切尔曾在1982年命令英军对阿根廷开战，争夺被英国称为福克兰、被阿根廷称为马尔维纳斯的群岛。
While Thatcher was reviled among Britain’s working classes for her economic austerity and conservatism, she was admired for her tenacity in the Falklands war, which the British won.
虽然撒切尔因其经济紧缩政策和保守主义风格遭到了英国工薪阶层的唾骂，但她在福克兰战争中的不屈不挠为其赢得不少敬意。那场战争以英国的胜利告终。
Female leaders followed across Europe, including Iceland in 1980, Norway in 1981, Malta in 1982, Lithuania and Ireland in 1990, France in 1991, Poland in 1992, Switzerland and Latvia in 1999, Finland in 2000, Macedonia in 2004, Ukraine and Germany in 2005, Croatia in 2009, Slovakia in 2010, and Denmark in 2011.
随后，欧洲各地都出现了女性领导人，其中冰岛是在1980年，挪威是在1981年，马耳他是在1982年，立陶宛和爱尔兰是在1990年，法国是在1991年，波兰是在1992年，瑞士和拉脱维亚是在1999年，芬兰是在2000年，马其顿是在2004年，乌克兰和德国是在2005年，克罗地亚是在2009年，斯洛伐克是在2010年，丹麦则是在2011年。
In Africa, women have ascended politically as peacemakers. The most prominent example is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in healing that country from civil war wrought by her predecessor.
在非洲，女性以和平缔造者的身份在政坛崛起。最突出的例子是利比里亚的埃伦•约翰逊•瑟利夫。她帮助治愈了前一任领导人给这个国家造成的内战创伤，因此与人分享了2011年的诺贝尔和平奖。
Although female leaders abroad are no longer rarities, men still far outpace women in politics: 22.8 percent of the world’s parliamentarians were women as of June 2016, according to the United Nations, up from 11.3 percent two decades ago.
尽管在国外由女性担任领导人已经不是稀罕事，但男性在政坛依然遥遥领先于女性：来自联合国的数据显示，截至2016年6月，世界范围内的女议员比例是22.8％，而20年前这个数字为11.3%。
Among the 193 member states of the United Nations, 18 women now serve in the top leadership positions.
在联合国的193个成员国中，有18个国家的最高领导人是女性。
“Executive positions are the hardest for women to crack,” said Thomas, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. “That’s true in business, true in politics.”
“女性最难攻克的是领导职位，”太平洋研究与评估学院的托马斯说。“在商界和政界都是如此。”
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