董明珠有接班人了？怎样的女性才能当CEO？｜经济学人精读

The first generations of successful women insisted on being judged by the same standards as men. They had nothing but contempt for the notion of special treatment for “the sisters”, and instead insisted on getting ahead by dint of working harder and thinking smarter. Margaret Thatcher made no secret of her contempt for the wimpish men around her. (There is a joke about her going out to dinner with her cabinet. “Steak or fish?” asks the waiter. “Steak, of course,” she replies. “And for the vegetables?” “They’ll have steak as well.”) During America’s most recent presidential election Hillary Clinton taunted Barack Obama with an advertisement that implied that he, unlike she, was not up to the challenge of answering the red phone at 3am.

参考译文：第一代成功女性坚持用和男性一样的标准来评判自己。她们对给予“姐妹们”特殊待遇的观念嗤之以鼻，相反，她们坚持通过更努力的工作和更聪明的思考来获得成功。玛格丽特•撒切尔(Margaret Thatcher)毫不掩饰自己对周围懦弱男性的蔑视。(有一个笑话是关于她和她的内阁成员出去吃饭。“牛排还是鱼?服务员问。“当然是牛排，”她回答。“蔬菜要什么呢?它们也要牛排。”在美国最近一次总统大选期间，希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)用一则广告嘲弄巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)，暗示奥巴马不像她，不能胜任凌晨3点接红色电话的挑战。

nothing but相当于only，只有，只是的意思，比如，Nothing but a miracle can save her now. 现在只有出现奇迹才能救活她。I want nothing but the best for my children. 我只是想给我的孩子们最好的。

contempt不陌生，不可数名词，意思是the feeling that sb / sth is without value and deserves no respect at all蔑视；轻蔑；鄙视。对……的蔑视就是文章的contempt for。经济学人曾经用这个词形容特朗普，我们看一下：He displayed contempt for political norms and the rule of law, fantasised about arresting and harming his political opponents, and consistently put his own interests ahead of America’s.他蔑视政治规范和法治，幻想逮捕和伤害他的政治对手，并始终将自己的利益置于美国利益之上。

再记一个with contempt，依然是经济学人中的例句，The ocean nurtures humanity. Humanity treats it with contempt.海洋滋养人类，人类却回以傲慢不恭。这句话在讲人与地球，人与自然的关系上可以直接套用了！

 

by dint of 意思是“由于，凭借”。例如：Japan’s carmakers were hit hard in the current crisis by dint of their heavy dependence on the US.日本汽车制造商严重依赖美国市场，因而在这两年的危机中受到沉重打击。

和它非常类似的词组是by virtue of凭借，依靠，由于…，它们because of有些类似，都意味着“因为，由于”，但是会更加突出“凭借…力量”这一层意思。例如：He rose high in society by virtue of his talent and learning.他因其才华和学识而飞黄腾达。

make no secret of sth这里可以积累住，表示不加掩饰，对…不加隐瞒，比如，Louise made no secret of her dislike for John.路易丝毫不隐瞒自己对约翰的厌恶。

反过来make a/any secret of sth就相当于hide隐瞒，上例句，He refuses to make any secret of his political allegiances. 他拒绝隐瞒自己的政治立场。

wimpish同wimpy表示 懦弱的;窝囊的；If you describe a person or their behaviour as wimpy, you disapprove of them because they are weak and seem to lack confidence or determination….比如a wimpy unpopular schoolboy…不合群的懦弱小男；This portrays her as wimpy, but she has a very strong character. 这把她描绘得很懦弱，其实她性格十分坚强。

 

《小屁孩日记》书名里也有wimpy这个词：

 

名词是wimp，懦夫，软弱的人的意思。

 

taunt的意思有点类似tease，表示嘲讽，奚落，比如这句说保守党和工党之间的恩怨情仇：After years of being taunted by the Tories for the spendthrift antics of loony-left councils, it is payback time for Labour. 多年来，保守党一直嘲笑疯狂左派议会挥霍无度，现在是工党报复的时候了。

 

再来个生活中的例子，Other youths taunted him about his clothes.其他年轻人笑话他的衣服。

red phone实际上是美俄热线，又称为“莫斯科－华盛顿热线”，前称“美苏热线”，始建于1963年，是连接白宫与克里姆林宫，使得美苏两国领袖可以直接沟通的通讯系统。这条热线在流行文化中常常称为“红色电话”，但它并不是一条电话线路，也从未使用过红色电话。热线最初使用的是电传打字机，1986年改进为传真设备。2008年之后，热线是被加密过的计算机连线，使用电子邮件传递信息。

02

Many pioneering businesswomen pride themselves on their toughness. Dong Mingzhu, the boss of Gree Electric Appliances, an air-conditioning giant, says flatly, “I never miss. I never admit mistakes and I am always correct.” In the past three years her company has boosted shareholder returns by nearly 500%.

参考译文：许多先锋商业女性都以自己的坚韧而自豪。空调巨头格力电器的老板董明珠直截了当地说:“我从不失误，我从不承认错误，我总是正确的。”在过去的三年里，她公司的股东回报率提高了近500%。

pride themselves on their toughness来自结构pride yourself on sth / on doing sth，引以为荣；为…而骄傲，比如，She had always prided herself on her appearance. 她总是对自己的外貌感到得意。

says flatly中flatly本来flat是平平的意思，所以flatly有平淡地，缺乏热情地意思，比如，‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said flatly. “哦，是你。“她冷冷地说。

但是flatly也可以表示地很激烈，决绝，也就是断然地，斩钉截铁地，这就很董明珠了。通常flatly和拒绝，反对连用，比如to flatly deny / reject / oppose sth断然否认 / 拒绝 / 反对某事。

前两段列举了三位女性领导人：撒切尔夫人、希拉里克林顿、董明珠。这些都是在男性战场上，在南拳社会背景下摸爬滚打出来的女人。她们成为女性领导者身上具备的品质可以用第一段里的这两句话来概括：The first generations of successful women insisted on being judged by the same standards as men. They had nothing but contempt for the notion of special treatment for “the sisters”, and instead insisted on getting ahead by dint of working harder and thinking smarter.

对应在这三位tough女性身上的动词有：make no secret of contempt for…, taunt, say flatly。

上一代的女性领导者以男性的准则评判自己，接下来作者又会以谁的视角来谈论呢？你可能也应该猜到了，我们接着看下去。

But some of today’s most influential feminists contend that women will never fulfil their potential if they play by men’s rules. According to Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, two of the most prominent exponents of this position, it is not enough to smash the glass ceiling. You need to audit the entire building for “gender asbestos”—in other words, root out the inherent sexism built into corporate structures and processes.

参考译文：但今天一些最有影响力的女权主义者认为，如果按照男性的规则行事，女性将永远无法发挥她们的潜力。这一立场两位最著名的代表人物阿维娃•维滕贝格–考克斯(Avivah Wittenberg-Cox)和艾莉森•梅特兰(Alison Maitland)认为，仅仅打破玻璃天花板是不够的。你需要对整个大楼进行“性别石棉”检查——换句话说，要根除公司结构和流程中固有的性别歧视。

contend表示主张；认为；在表示个人意见时可以使用，来代替常说的believe, think。它的同义词还有argue，它们往往被忽略使用，我们看一个例句，比如一篇关于反思死亡的文章有这么一句话：But she argues that mainstream procedures such as cancer-screening are oversold as well. 但她认为类似癌症筛查的各种主流诊疗手段也被吹捧过头了。Industry executives contend that audio is undervalued—especially compared with video. 业内高管认为音频的价值被低估了，特别是与视频相比。

再介绍一个词组contend with，表示苦于应付, 全力应付，肯定是应对比较难搞的问题，例如：Those economies must also contend with the issue of slow growth and an aging population. 这些经济体还必须应对增长缓慢和人口老龄化问题。

exponent是“支持”的表达方式之一。它的意思是支持者，同义词还有booster，proponent等。

[拓展]表示“支持，用户”还有以下表达方法：

embrace, endorse（动词，支持）， countenance（动词，支持），a champion of, a fan of, cheerleader（比如，支持全球化的人，就可以表达成globalization cheerleaders）,

smash the glass ceiling中glass ceiling表示玻璃天花板，现在只要是到顶了都会表示成天花板，而玻璃天花板就是你到顶了，还看不出来，也就是无形中，黑不提白不提地让你到顶了。常指妇女等在职务升迁上遇到的无形障碍，无形限制。通常和smash搭配。

audit常见的意思是审计，根据这里audit the entire building for “gender asbestos”中和the entire building的搭配，audit可以理解为对(质量或标准的)审查，检查。

asbestos意思是石棉，看一下英文解释a soft grey mineral that does not burn, used especially in the past in building as a protection against fire or to prevent heat loss。这里之所以用asbestos（石棉）这个词，是和前面的building搭配的。

sexism意思是性别歧视，当然也可以写作sexual/gender discrimination。此外，“种族歧视”就是ethnic discrimination或者racism，还有“年龄歧视”age discrimination，ageism。我们也可以用bias来表示“偏见，歧视”，比如：Some institutions still have a strong bias against women. 有些机构仍然对女性持有很大偏见。

很明显这段开始从新女拳主义者的角度来写，不同于上一代的女性领导者标榜的成功标准，本届feminists直接要求废除按照男性的规则行事，根除公司中的性别歧视。

The new feminism contends that women are wired differently from men, and not just in trivial ways. They are less aggressive and more consensus-seeking, less competitive and more collaborative, less power-obsessed and more group-oriented. Judy Rosener, of the University of California, Irvine, argues that women excel at “transformational” and “interactive” management. Peninah Thomson and Jacey Graham, the authors of “A Woman’s Place is in the Boardroom”, assert that women are “better lateral thinkers than men” and “more idealistic” into the bargain. Feminist texts are suddenly full of references to tribes of monkeys, with their aggressive males and nurturing females.

参考译文：新女权主义认为，女性与男性不同，且不仅仅在一些琐碎方面。她们不那么咄咄逼人，更倾向于寻求共识；不那么有竞争力，更倾向于合作；不那么迷恋权力，更倾向于群体导向。加州大学欧文分校的朱迪·罗森尔(Judy Rosener)认为，女性擅长“变革”和“互动”管理。《女性的位置在会议室》一书的作者佩尼娜•汤姆森和杰西•格雷厄姆断言，女性“比男性更善于横向思考”，而且“更理想主义”。女权主义的说辞里突然不断提及猴子部落，在这个部落里男性咄咄逼人，而女性则很有教养。

excel表示超过，除此之外还可以用overtake，outpace, outstrip, surpass, exceed,dwarf, outshine, overshadow（常用被动形式）等表达！

这里excel at表示在某方面出色，可以代替be good at。

lateral thinking横向思维。根据知乎上的描述，横向思维(lateralthinking)，顾名思义，是指这个人的思维有其横向、往宽处发展的特点。具有这种思维特点的人，思维面都不会太窄，且善于举一反三。有一个形象的比喻，这种思维就像河流一样，遇到宽广处，很自然的就会蔓延开来，但欠缺的是深度不够。这就是纵向思维的事儿了，感兴趣的同学可以自行查阅一下。

into the bargain相当于also, as well，另外，而且，也的意思，看个例句：Volunteers learn a lot and enjoy themselves into the bargain. 志愿者在学到很多东西的同时还能得到乐趣。 

再看个外刊例句：While there will always be women who give it all up to raise their children, and I respect their choice, it may well be much less fulfilling than it sounds and a terrible waste of resources into the bargain. 虽然总会有女性为了抚养孩子而放弃一切，我尊重她们的选择，但这样做很可能远没有听上去那么令人有成就感，而且也是对资源的极大浪费。

What is more, the argument runs, these supposedly womanly qualities are becoming ever more valuable in business. The recent financial crisis proved that the sort of qualities that men pride themselves on, such as risk-taking and bare-knuckle competition, can lead to disaster. Lehman Brothers would never have happened if it had been Lehman Sisters, according to this theory. Even before the financial disaster struck, the new feminists also claim, the best companies had been abandoning “patriarchal” hierarchies in favour of “collaboration” and “networking”, skills in which women have an inherent advantage.

参考译文：更重要的是，这种论点还认为这些所谓的女性品质在商界正变得越来越有价值。最近的金融危机证明，男性引以为豪的那些品质，比如冒险和赤手空脚的竞争，可能会导致灾难。根据这一理论，如果雷曼兄弟公司由女性领导者掌管的话，就不会出事了。新女权主义者还声称，甚至在金融灾难发生之前，最好的公司就已经放弃了“男权”等级制度，而倾向于“协作”和“网络”，女性在这些技能上具有内在优势。

[语法]What is more, the argument runs, these supposedly womanly qualities are becoming ever more valuable in business.

这句话乍一看怎么好几个句子，句子和句子之间还没有连接词？实际上these supposedly womanly qualities are becoming ever more valuable in business可以看作是the argument runs这个主句里的宾语从句。

咱们再看看the argument runs这里，其中run的意思是to have particular words, contents, etc.包含(某种词语、内容等)，看两个例句吧，Their argument ran something like this… 他们的论点大致是这样的… ‘Ten shot dead by gunmen,’ ran the newspaper headline. 报纸的标题为“枪手击毙十人“。 

bare-knuckle也写作bare-knuckled。knuckle是指节，指关节的意思，和bare搭配，就是赤手空拳的。

the best companies had been abandoning “patriarchal” hierarchies in favour of “collaboration” and “networking”, skills in which women have an inherent advantage.

patriarchal这个词明确一下发音，/ˌpeɪtrɪˈɑːkəl/，相当于male-dominated。父权社会就是patriarchal society。

它的反义词是matriarchal，意思是controlled by women rather than men母系的、母权的，比如The animals live in matriarchal groups.这些动物按母系群体生活。

in favour of这里是个不常用的意思，in exchange for another thing (because the other thing is better or you want it more) 为获得(更好或更需要的事物)，比如，He abandoned teaching in favour of a career as a musician. 他弃教从事音乐。 

再比如看一个经济学人例句，First, technology and capitalism, blamed for many of the ravages of industrialisation, are now reinforcing each other in favour of dematerialisation. 首先是技术和资本主义，它们被指为工业化带来的诸多破坏的罪魁祸首，如今正在相互促进以实现去物质化。

但是一般表示“偏袒、支持、青睐”这类动词的时候，就可以考虑用介词短语in favour of，比如practices that discriminate against women and in favour of men 重男轻女的做法；Opportunities and success tend to be in favour of those who are ready. 机会和成功青睐有准备的人。

后面的skills一词是前面“collaboration” and “networking”的同位语，它后面有跟了一个定语从句in which。这种同位语+定语从句的表达方法在外刊中很常见，大家要多多留心，然后学习去使用。

This argument may sound a little like the stuff of gender workshops in righteous universities. But it is gaining followers in powerful places. McKinsey, the most venerable of management consultancies, has published research arguing that women apply five of the nine “leadership behaviours” that lead to corporate success more frequently than men. Niall FitzGerald, the deputy chairman of Thomson Reuters and a former boss of Unilever, is as close as you can get to the heart of the corporate establishment. He proclaims, “Women have different ways of achieving results, and leadership qualities that are becoming more important as our organisations become less hierarchical and more loosely organised around matrix structures.” Many companies are abandoning the old-fashioned commitment to treating everybody equally and instead becoming “gender adapted” and “gender bilingual”—in touch with the unique management wisdom of their female employees. A host of consultancies has sprung up to teach firms how to listen to women and exploit their special abilities.

参考译文：这个论点听起来有点像正义大学里性别研讨会里的东西。但它正在位高权重的地方获得追随者。最受尊敬的管理咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey)发表的研究报告称，在引导企业成功的9种“领导行为”中，女性比男性更频繁地运用其中的5种。尼尔•菲茨杰拉德是汤森路透的副董事长，也是联合利华的前老板，是企业中的当权派。他宣称:“女性有不同的实现目标的方式，随着我们的组织不再那么等级分明，围绕矩阵结构的组织更加松散，女性的领导品质也变得越来越重要。”许多公司正在放弃平等对待每个人的老式承诺，转而采用“性别适应”和“两性合作”的方式，以接触女性员工独特的管理智慧。一大批咨询公司如雨后春笋般涌现，教企业如何倾听女性的意见，如何利用她们的特殊能力。

venerable表示“(因年高、显要、智慧等)令人尊重的，值得敬重的，受敬佩的（people or things deserve respect because they are old, important, wise, etc.）”，比如，a venerable old man 德高望重的老人。

在经济学人里，venerable经常来形容一些企业，比如一篇文章里这样形容IBM：IBM, a venerable corporate IT firm企业IT服务老店IBM。所以一些“百年老店”，“中华老字号”，我们可以说成the venerable shop；或者the time-honored shop。

the corporate establishment中establishment在这里的意思是the people in a society or a profession who have influence and power and who usually do not support change(通常反对变革的)当权派，权势集团；(统称)权威人士，比如，the medical / military / political, etc. establishment 医学界、军界、政界等当权派 ；young people rebelling against the Establishment 反对当权者的年轻人。

spring up这个词是高频，最常见的意思是“如雨后春笋般迅速突然地出现，涌现”。经济学人曾用这个表达形容瑞幸咖啡店在中国遍地开花：Independent coffee shops are springing up, at which preparation of the drink is taken to artisanal extremes. 独立的咖啡店如雨后春笋般出现，在那里，咖啡的制作手艺达到了巅峰。

The new feminists are right to be frustrated about the pace of women’s progress in business. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission calculated that, at the current rate of progress, it will take 60 years for women to gain equal representation on the boards of the FTSE 100. They are also right that old-fashioned feminism took too little account of women’s role in raising children. But their arguments about the innate differences between men and women are sloppy and counterproductive.

参考译文：新女权主义者有理由对女性在商界的进步步伐感到沮丧。英国平等与人权委员会(Equality and Human Rights Commission)估计，按照目前的进步速度，女性要想在富时100指数(FTSE 100)获得平等的董事会席位，需要60年的时间。她们认为老式的女权主义对女性在抚养孩子方面的角色考虑太少也是正确的。但她们关于男女天生差异的争论是草率的，而且适得其反。

be right to do有理由作某事。right在这里的意思是a moral or legal claim to have or get sth or to behave in a particular way正当的要求；权利，She had every right to be angry.她完全有理由生气。 

[拓展]表示“有理由”还可以用for good reason，注意一定是reason不是reasons。站在中文的角度上来看，我们经常说某件事情会发生，其背后一定有它的理由，也就是说：这件事情发生了确实在情理之中，也不觉得奇怪。for good reason这个短语可以单独使用，也可以当做插入语强调，也可以放在句尾补充信息，相当于：it is understandable…。来看个外刊例句熟悉一下：The mood among airline bosses can seem uniformly bleak. For good reason: air travel may not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. 航空公司老板们似乎全体情绪低落。这很容易理解：航空旅行可以要等到2024年才能恢复到疫情前水平。

innate和上文提到的inherent意思一样，表示天生的；先天的；与生俱来的。大家对它应该也不陌生。经济学人一篇讲看脸社会的文章，里面谈到天生长得好看的人更容易得到晋升就用了innately：But it seems more probable that people with a certain type of appearance are likely to get promoted than it is to believe they are innately more competent than everyone else. 但是，拥有某种外表的人更有可能获得晋升，而不是相信他们天生就比其他人更有能力。

counterproductive：我们从构词角度来理解一下这个单词，counter-这个词缀咱们应该比较熟悉，表示against, opposite, in return相反，相悖这个含义，比如counteract v. 抵制;抵消；counterattack v. 反攻，反击；countercharge v.n. 反诉，反告等等。

形容词productive表示有效益的，富有成效的，那么counterproductive也就是产生相反效果的；或者说事与愿违的，适得其反的。看一个经济学人的例句再熟悉熟悉：Officials are aware that excessive government meddling in industry can be counterproductive. 如今很清楚政府对产业过度干涉可能适得其反。

[拓展]表示“适得其反的” ，咱们还可以这么说：

1. self-defeating 形容词。defeat本来就是击败，战胜之意，现在加上一个前缀self-，自我挫败，也就是弄巧成拙的、适得其反的、事与愿违的意思。比如Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self-defeating. 超过一定程度，额外工作可能会适得其反。

2. backfire 不及物动词，产生事与愿违的不良(或危险)后果，逆火。比如 The company’s new policy backfired when a number of employees threatened to quit. 公司的新政策事与愿违，有好几名员工威胁说要辞职.

People who bang on about innate differences should remember that variation within subgroups in the population is usually bigger than the variation between subgroups. Even if it can be established that, on average, women have a higher “emotional-intelligence quotient” than men, that says little about any specific woman. Judging people as individuals rather than as representatives of groups is both morally right and good for business.

参考译文：喋喋不休地谈论先天差异的人应该记住，人口中亚群内部的差异通常比亚群之间的差异更大。即使可以确定，平均而言，女性的“情商”比男性高，但这并不能说明任何具体的女性。把人作为个体而不是群体代表来评判，在道德上是正确的，对企业也有好处。

bang on about sth 意思是to talk a lot about sth in a boring way唠叨；絮叨 ，比如，He keeps banging on about his new job. 他没完没了地唠叨他那份新工作。

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Besides, many of the most successful women are to be found in hard-edged companies, rather than the touchy-feely organisations of the new feminist imagination: Areva (nuclear energy), AngloAmerican (mining), Archer Daniels Midland (agribusiness), DuPont (chemicals), Sunoco (oil) and Xerox (technology) all have female bosses. The Cranfield School of Management’s Female FTSE 100 Index reveals that two of the industries with the best record for promoting women to their boards are banking and transport.

参考译文：此外，许多最成功的女性都出自硬核公司，而不是在新女权主义者想象中的那些感情丰富的公司里：阿海珐(核能)、英美资源集团(矿业)、阿彻丹尼尔斯米德兰(农业企业)、杜邦(化工)、太阳石油(石油)和施乐(科技)都有女性老板。克兰菲尔德管理学院(Cranfield School of Management)的女性富时100指数显示，历史上在提拔女性进入董事会表现最好的两个行业是银行业和交通运输业。

touchy-feely的意思是too concerned with feelings and emotions, rather than with facts or actions过分多愁善感的，情绪化的，看个例子，a touchy-feely drama伤感的戏剧。

显然它和上文中的hard-edged是一对对立的词汇。hard-edged词典中的意思是风格、戏剧、文章等精辟有力的，犀利的，客观理智的；If you describe something such as a style, play, or article as hard-edged, you mean you admire it because it is powerful, critical, or unsentimental. 例如，a hard-edged collection of songs一组歌词犀利的歌曲。

这里用hard-edged来形容一些老牌的硬核公司，集中在能源、化工、科技领域。在这些行业里，更多需要理性的判断，客观数据支撑，而非用情感去经营。

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Women would be well advised to ignore the siren voices of the new feminism and listen to Ms Dong instead. Despite their frustration, the future looks bright. Women are now outperforming men markedly in school and university. It would be a grave mistake to abandon old-fashioned meritocracy just at the time when it is turning to women’s advantage.

参考译文：女性最好忽略新女权主义的诱人声音，听从董女士的建议。尽管她们感到沮丧，但未来看起来很光明。如今，女性在中学和大学的表现明显优于男性。在传统的精英统治变得青睐女性的时候，放弃这种传统将是一个严重的错误。

well advised 意思是acting in the most sensible way审慎；稳妥，比如，You would be well advised to tackle this problem urgently. 你还是抓紧处理这个问题为好。 

siren多指汽笛，警报器的声音，这里指的是the temptation to do sth that seems very attractive but that will have bad results危险的诱惑，比如，The government must resist the siren voices calling for tax cuts. zf万万不可听信那些鼓吹减税的动听言辞。

outperform sb/sth markedly表示明显优于…，学习一下。

turning to women’s advantage表示to use or change a bad situation so that it helps you使转为有利；变(不利)为有利；利用。不要分开翻译。

看到这里作者熊彼特的观点已经很明确了。他是支持女性领导者的，反对的是新女拳主义者过分强调全体女性的优势，甚至认为这些优势足够让女性成为领导者，而忽视了个体女强人所具备的其他品质。毕竟一个组织内女领导人能有几个。女人多数都情感丰富、有耐心、有包容心，但是有了这些不一定能成为领导，尤其在推动经济发展的重工业领域里。所以结尾熊彼特认为，要想成为女性CEO，还是得tough一点儿。

 

由于篇幅有限，今天的精读就到这里。