美多數女性認爲自己能兼顧工作和生活

Most young women believe they will achieve a balance between a rewarding career and a fulfilling personal life, despite the economic upheaval and a legacy of corporate culture that favors men, a survey shows.

The online survey of full-time working women between the ages of 22 and 35 years old revealed that they wanted a balance between their personal and professional lives and a job where they could make a difference.

Medical benefits were a crucial part of how they defined professional success, according to the survey commissioned by global management consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture, some 63 percent cited medical benefits as crucial to a professional success.

Accenture surveyed the 1,000 women because "we are always interested in attracting and retaining the best and the brightest," explained LaMae Allen deJongh, noting that globally the company employed 60,000 women.

Women are soon expected to make up half the U.S. workforce and the so-called millennials, those born after 1980, are now one-third of the working population.

DeJongh, managing director of US human capital and diversity at the company, said the survey showed that "one-size is not going to fit all" when it comes to retaining women. Half of the respondents said flexible hours were important to them.

Nearly all, 94 percent, believed they could achieve a balance between a satisfying professional career and a gratifying personal life.

When asked to rank barriers to their careers, 12 percent cited marriage, 19 percent said maternity policies and 30 percent named pay scales.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the median salary for women was 80 percent of men's. When comparing the median weekly earning of those aged 16 to 34, young women earned 91 percent of what young men did.

Almost 60 percent of the women surveyed reported being negatively impacted by the current economic downturn. And one-third were more concerned with keeping their jobs than achieving the work-personal life balance.

The U.S. unemployment rate remains at 10 percent, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office does not expect it to dip below 8 percent before 2012.

一項調查顯示，儘管經濟形勢動盪，企業文化更青睞男性，美國大多數年輕女性認爲她們能在事業發展和個人生活兩者之間取得平衡。

這項針對年齡在22歲到35歲之間的全職女性的在線調查顯示，女性希望在個人生活和職業發展兩者間取得平衡，並希望擁有一份能夠發揮自身價值的工作。

這項受埃森哲全球管理諮詢及外包公司委託開展的調查表明，醫療福利是女性定義職業成功的重要標準，約63%的人稱醫療福利對於職業成功至關重要。

埃森哲公司美國人力資本和多樣化部門經理拉美伊•艾倫•德容解釋說，該公司共對1000名女性進行了調查，因爲“我們一直很注重吸引和留住最優秀和最聰慧的女性員工”。他稱埃森哲公司在全球共僱傭了6萬名女性。

女性很快將佔據美國勞動力的一半，出生於上世紀80年代後的“千禧”代目前佔勞動力人口總數的三分之一。

德容說，該調查顯示，在留住女員工方面，沒有一個萬全之策。一半的受訪者稱，靈活的工作時間對於她們很重要。

幾乎所有的受訪者（94%）認爲她們可以在令人滿意的職業發展和快樂的個人生活二者間取得平衡。

在被問及職業發展的障礙時，12%的人認爲是婚姻，19%的人認爲是生育政策，30%的人認爲是薪酬等級。

美國勞工部報告說，女性的平均薪酬爲男性的80%。如果將年齡在16歲到34歲之間的男女員工的周平均收入做個比較，年輕女性的收入爲年輕男性的91%。

近60%的受訪女性報告稱她們受到當前經濟衰退的影響。三分之一的女性更關心的是保住她們現在的飯碗，無暇考慮工作和生活平衡的問題。

目前美國的失業率仍高居10%，據中立機構國會預算辦公室預計，失業率在2012年之前無望降到8%以下。

Vocabulary:

upheaval: a big change that causes a lot of confusion, worry and problems 劇變；激變；動亂；動盪

outsourcing: arranging for somebody outside a company to do work or provide goods for that company 交外辦理；外購

millennial: a person from the generation which grew up in the 90s and 2000s 千禧年一代

dip: to go downwards or to a lower level; to make something do this （使）下降，下沉