Why do so many working moms' careers stall out when they hit middle management? Disagreement over the answer has often sparked hot debate。

為什么很多上班媽媽當上中層管理人員后其職業(yè)生涯就陷入停滯?對這個問題的不同回答往往引發(fā)激烈的爭論。

There are actually many right answers, and most of them emerged in new research and discussion last week at The Wall Street Journal conference on Women in the Economy. Working on the premise that engaging women more fully in the workforce worldwide would spark leaps in innovation and productivity, McKinsey & Co. presented a study showing that women's share of corporate jobs is 53% at the entry level, but falls to 14% at the executive-committee level. Here is a sampling of the reasons that emerged in the study, and in conference discussions: Everett Collection。

女性在中層管理層上面臨的障礙是什么?事實上，這個問題有很多正確答案。上周《華爾街日報》主辦的“商界女性”(Women in the Economy)論壇中，新的研究和與會嘉賓的探討也給出了其中很多答案。麥肯錫公司(McKinsey & Co。)發(fā)布了一項研究，以全世界女性更充分地參與到工作中來能夠促進創(chuàng)新和生產力的飛躍為前提，研究表明，在入門級公司職位里，女性占據(jù)的比例為53%;但到了執(zhí)行委員會這樣的高層職位里，這一比例就迅速降到了14%。以下列舉了上述研究和會議討論中出現(xiàn)的部分解釋：

Discouraging odds. Although 83% of mid-level women have a strong desire to move up to a higher level in their companies, their chances of landing a senior executive job are 60% those of men, Vikram Malhotra, McKinsey's chairman of the Americas, told about 170 attendees. In a statement that was repeated throughout the conference, Malhotra said 'middle-management women get promoted on performance, while middle-management men get promoted on potential.' That means that some women may have to work even harder than their male counterparts to get promoted。

晉升機會不大。麥肯錫美洲區(qū)主席馬爾霍特拉(Vikram Malhotra)對大約170名與會者說，雖然83%的中層職業(yè)女性都有進入本公司更高層的強烈愿望，但她們獲得高級管理職位的機會只有男性的60%。馬爾霍特拉在會議上反復強調，中層職業(yè)女性因為業(yè)績優(yōu)秀獲得提拔，而同處中層的男性則因潛能獲得提拔。這意味著一些女性可能要比男性更加努力才能獲得晉升機會。

Lifestyle preferences. Many mother and fathers say they wouldn't take any promotion that hurt their work-life balance, Malhotra says, but women feel a greater need after having kids to limit travel, McKinsey found. And for women at mid-career who have had one or two children, added Sallie Krawcheck, president, global wealth and investment management at Bank of America, in a conference interview, 'it's socially acceptable to go home.'

生活方式的選擇。馬爾霍特拉說，很多父母都表示，他們不會接受會損害工作與生活平衡的晉升。但麥肯錫的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，有了孩子之后，女性往往感到更有必要控制出差的次數(shù)。美國銀行(Bank of America)全球財富與投資管理部總裁克勞切特(Sallie Krawcheck)在會議上接受采訪時補充說，對于那些有了一到兩個孩子的中層職業(yè)女性來說，“回家”是能夠得到社會認可的行為。

The glass ceiling. As one woman in the McKinsey study said, 'there are no females in upper management in my company.' Without role models, sponsors and mentors in top management, it is hard for women to imagine themselves in those jobs. One perpetuating factor is managers' fear that 'if we promote a woman and she goes out on leave, we won't make our numbers. It's too risky,' Malhotra says。

玻璃天花板。麥肯錫的研究中有一位女性這樣說：我供職的公司中沒有女性擔任高層管理人員。沒有來自高層的榜樣、支持者和導師，女性很難想象自己能走入高層。馬爾霍特拉說，一個長期存在的因素是老板擔心如果提拔一位女性，但她外出休假，我們人手不夠怎么辦?這樣風險太大了。

Lower pay. Nancy Carter, senior vice president, research, for Catalyst, said her group's study of 5,000 employees worldwide found 'women were placed in lower positions with lower pay in their first jobs' compared with men, 'and the gap increased over time.'

收入較低。Catalyst的公司研究部高級副總裁卡特(Nancy Carter)說她的部門對全球5,000名員工的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，女性的第一份工作往往級別較低，收入也較低，隨著時間的流逝，差距越來越大。

Forbidding child-care costs. If child care eats up your paycheck, working 'isn't worthwhile, unless you absolutely love your job and are willing to take a financial hit for the pleasure of working,' Saadia Zahidi, a director and specialist on women's issues at the World Economic Forum, told the group。

請人照顧孩子的成本太高。世界經濟論壇婦女問題專家扎西迪(Saadia Zahidi)說，如果照顧孩子的成本吞噬了你大部分收入，工作就變得不值得，除非你非常熱愛自己的工作，愿為工作樂趣承擔財務上的沖擊。

Contentment - really. McKinsey found 'women often stay put in jobs if they derive a sense of meaning from the work. More than men, women prize the opportunity to pour their energies into making a difference,' the study says. 'Women don't want to trade that joy for what they fear will be energy-draining meetings and corporate politics' at higher levels of management。

知足。麥肯錫研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果能發(fā)現(xiàn)工作的意義，婦女往往愿意留在原工作崗位。研究表明，比起男性，女性更看重能注入她們精力做出改變的機會。女性不愿意放棄這樣的樂趣去換取高層管理職位，她們擔心身處高層要面對大量勞神費力的會議和公司政治。

Readers, have any of these factors affected your career decisions? Are there other factors that are left out? Which do you think have the most powerful effect on working parents? Are the career influences changing for women?

親愛的讀者，上述因素是否影響過你的職業(yè)決定?是否遺漏了其它一些因素?你認為對于上班的父母來說，哪一個因素影響最大?對于女性來說，影響職業(yè)的因素是否有變化?