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Two facts are often obscured in the public conversation devoted to women, work, and family. First, the vast majority of married mothers don’t want to work full-time. Second, married mothers who are able to cut back at work to accommodate their family’s needs tend to be happier. Mothers and fathers were asked by Pew if they had made family-related sacrifices for work—from quitting their job to turning down a promotion. Pew found that 65 percent of mothers had made such a family-related sacrifice, compared to 45 percent of fathers. Women married with children were more likely to be “very happy” with their lives if they made a family-related work sacrifice. By contrast, the happiness of married men was not significantly related to making work sacrifices for their families. What does this data really tell us? These results do not prove that spending less time at work makes women happier. It could be, for instance, that happier women are more likely to make work sacrifices, in the first place. Or it could be that more affluent mothers, who are more likely to be happy above a certain level of income, can spend more time with their families than poorer moms. Most (married) mothers would prefer not to work full-time, and the most popular option for women, when it comes to juggling work and family, is part-time work. A New York Times/CBS Newssurvey this year found that 49 percent of mothers wished to work part-time, compared to 27 percent who wished to work full-time. This data suggests that one reason married mothers who make work sacrifices are happier is that they would prefer to scale back at work—at least for some portion of their lives as mothers—and are happier when they can do so. This reality is often glossed over in the public conversation about work, women, and family, but as Catherine Rampell at The New York Times observed: “Not everyone aspires to be an executive at Facebook, like [Sheryl] Sandberg, or to set foreign policy, like Anne-Marie Slaughter” (author of “Why Women Can’t Have It All”).” Instead, as K.J. Dell’Antonia put it, most women are “striving for flexibility and balance” when it comes to juggling their aspirations for success at home and work. Again, in the public conversation and the formulation of public policies regarding work and family, let us not forget that the happiest married mothers are those who are able to lean homeward, at least for a season in their lives. |
在公眾對(duì)女性、工作和家庭問題的討論中，人們總會(huì)掩蓋兩個(gè)事實(shí)。首先，大多數(shù)已婚母親不想全職工作。第二，在工作方面做出犧牲，花更多的經(jīng)歷照管家人的已婚母親幸福感更強(qiáng)。 皮尤研究中心詢問被訪父母親是否因家庭的原因在工作方面做過犧牲——例如辭職或拒絕升職。皮尤研究中心發(fā)現(xiàn)，65%的母親做出過此類犧牲，而父親中做過類似犧牲的只占45%。 已婚并有孩子的女性如果因?yàn)榧彝ピ蛟诠ぷ魃献龀隽藸奚腋８锌赡軙?huì)更強(qiáng)。相比之下，已婚男性的幸福感與因家庭原因在工作上做出犧牲之間并無太大關(guān)聯(lián)。 這組數(shù)據(jù)真正表明了什么呢？這些結(jié)果不能證明減少工作時(shí)間就能讓女性感到更幸福。比如說，首先應(yīng)該是更幸福的女性更愿意在工作上做出犧牲?；蛘哒f，與生活不富裕的母親相比，達(dá)到了某一收入水平，生活更為富足的母親更有資本在家人身上多花些時(shí)間。 大多數(shù)（已婚）母親不喜歡全職工作，對(duì)于廣大女性來說，在權(quán)衡工作和家庭時(shí)，她們會(huì)更傾向于從事一份兼職工作。今年，一項(xiàng)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》/哥倫比亞廣播公司新聞網(wǎng)的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，49%的母親希望從事兼職工作，而希望全職工作的比例只有27%。 這組數(shù)據(jù)顯示為家庭犧牲工作的已婚母親幸福感更強(qiáng)的一個(gè)原因就是她們更傾向于縮減工作量——至少要為她們作為母親的角色騰出一些時(shí)間——她們也會(huì)因此而感到更幸福。 當(dāng)人們談及工作，女性和家庭的話題時(shí)，事實(shí)往往會(huì)被掩蓋，然而正如紐約時(shí)報(bào)記者凱瑟琳·拉姆佩爾所言：“并不是每個(gè)人都想像桑德伯格（Sandberg）（Facebook總裁）那樣當(dāng)總裁，或者像安妮-瑪麗·斯勞特（Anne-Marie Slaughetr）（《為什么女性仍然不能擁有全部》作者）那樣與外交政策打交道。”相反，像K·J·戴爾·安東尼婭說的那樣，在平衡事業(yè)有成和家庭和睦之間，大多數(shù)女性都在“追求靈活和平衡”。 再次提醒各位讀者，在公開討論和制定工作和家庭方面的公共政策時(shí)，不要忘了最幸福的已婚母親是更傾向于家庭的，至少在她們生命中的某一階段是這樣的。 （譯者 王靈活 編輯 丹妮） |
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