Earlier this year, I listened to Susan Rice, White House National Security Adviser, address the Women in the World conference in New York. Unsurprisingly, there was discussion aplenty about North Korea and the Middle East. But there was also abashed laughter about basketball. For before Rice embarked on a political career, she was a keen basketball player, playing point guard; indeed she was so obsessed with the game that she was apparently nicknamed “Spo”， short for “Sportin'”. “I loved it!” she declared。
今年早些時候，我在紐約聆聽了白宮國家安全顧問蘇珊?賴斯(Susan Rice)在世界婦女基金會(Women in the World)大會上的講話。毫無意外地，她花了很多篇幅談到朝鮮和中東。不過她也談到了籃球，還為此不好意思地發(fā)笑。這是因為賴斯從政之前，曾是一位籃球運動愛好者，在球場上她扮演控球后衛(wèi)的角色。實際上她對籃球比賽如此癡迷，以至于好像還得到了“Spo”的綽號，這是運動一詞的英文縮寫。她大聲說：“我那時太愛籃球了!”
Just a coincidence? Perhaps not. In recent months Ernst & Young, the American consultancy, has been analysing sporting activity among senior female executives and leaders. Andit has discovered that the higher the executive level, the more likely it is that a woman played sport at high school or college. Most notably, some 19 out of 20 women who sit in the “C-suite” - holding the title “chief something” - were sporty as a teenager; indeed,seven out of 10 still play sport as a working adult, while six out of 10 played sportat university. One in eight C-suite executives played sport professionally. However, among the middle levels of working women, athletic skill was lower: just a third of mid-level women, for example, played sport at university。
不知道是不是巧合?也許不是。最近幾個月，美國咨詢機構(gòu)安永(Ernst & Young)對資深女性主管和領(lǐng)導人的體育活動進行了分析。此次分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，女性職位越高，她在中學或大學參加體育運動的可能性就越大。最引人注目的是，每20名帶著“首席”頭銜的女性中，就有大約19名在少女時期十分喜愛運動。事實上，她們中每10位就有7位在成年工作后依然參加體育活動，而六成的人曾在大學參加過體育運動。每八位“首席”高管就有一位做過職業(yè)運動員。與之相比，在中層職場女性中，掌握運動技能的比例相對較低，例如只有三分之一的中層女性大學時參加過體育比賽。
Now, this survey is - admittedly - based on a small sample size (there are simply not that many C-suite women around, compared with C-suite men). And there is no comparable data for stay-at-home mums, say. Nevertheless, the statistics echo a pattern that I have noticed in my own conversations with powerful women。
必須承認，目前這項調(diào)查的樣本數(shù)有點少——與“首席”男士相比，“首席”女士確實沒有那么多。而且這一數(shù)據(jù)還沒有把那些——比如說——家庭婦女的數(shù)據(jù)作為對照。不過，這一統(tǒng)計結(jié)果，確實與我自己和有權(quán)勢女性打交道時，注意到的現(xiàn)象不謀而合。
Sportiness seems so widespread among women such as Rice that it is actually hard to think of any executive who admits to having been a couch potato as a child. Think, for example, of IMF head Christine Lagarde (a former member of France's synchronised swimming team)， Condoleezza Rice (a keen figure skater in her youth) and Hillary Clinton (school baseball). Or Dilma Rousseff (the Brazilian president, who played volleyball to a high level)， Indra Nooyi (the CEO of PepsiCo was a keen cricket player)， Ellen Kullman (CEO at Dupont, who played basketball to a high level at college). Even Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, was formerly an aerobics instructor. And those are just examples that spring to mind。
在賴斯這類女性中，對運動的愛好看起來如此普遍，實際上，很難想象任何高管會承認她小時候只會窩在沙發(fā)上看電視。比如，國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)總裁克里斯蒂娜?拉加德(Christine Lagarde)曾是法國花樣游泳隊員，康多莉扎?賴斯(Condoleezza Rice)年輕時曾是一位花樣滑冰愛好者，而希拉里?克林頓(Hillary Clinton)曾參加過學校壘球隊�；蛘哌�有巴西總統(tǒng)迪爾瑪?羅塞夫(Dilma Rousseff)——她打排球的水平很高，百事公司(PepsiCo)首席執(zhí)行官盧英德(Indra Nooyi)則是一位板球愛好者，杜邦(Dupont)首席執(zhí)行官柯愛倫(Ellen Kullman)在大學時打籃球曾打到極高水平。甚至還有Facebook首席運營官謝里爾?桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)，她曾是一位健美操教練。所有這些不過是我瞬間想到的例子。
Why? A cynic might suggest that this reflects the pressure on today's elite - of either sex - to stay slim and healthy. You need stamina to climb that corporate ladder. Having a sense of teamworkand discipline also instills skills that are useful in the workplace, for women as much as men. Or as Beth Brooke, vice-chair of Ernst & Young says: “Not only do the majority of senior women executives have sports in their background, they recognise that the behaviours and techniques learned through sports are critical to motivating teams and improving performance in a corporate environment。”
為什么會這樣?憤世嫉俗的人可能會認為，這反映出如今的精英——不管是何種性別——都面臨著保持身材和健康的巨大壓力。在職場中向上爬需要足夠耐力。擁有團隊協(xié)作精神和紀律性也會潛移默化地提升那些在職場中有用的技巧，這一點對女性和男性都同樣成立。或者正如安永副董事長貝斯?布魯克(Beth Brooke)所說：“大多數(shù)資深女性主管不僅僅有過運動的經(jīng)歷，而且她們認識到，通過運動學到的行為方式和技巧，對于在企業(yè)中激勵團隊和提升業(yè)績也至關(guān)重要。”
I suspect, however, that there is something else more important - and subtle - going ontoo. Girls who play sport at school learn at a young age that it is acceptable to compete aggressively. They also discover that success does not depend on looking good and that it can be acceptable to take pleasurein winning. That might seem an obvious point, at least to an adult man. But it is not so self-evident to young girls who are exposed to modern Hollywood teen - or tweenie - culture. Indeed, when I lookat the cultural messages that kids receive now from films and television, compared with my own childhood, I suspect thatgirls need sports today more than ever. Beingan athlete is one of the few socially accepted ways for teenage girls to compete, without peer criticism。
不過，我懷疑這背后還有什么更重要和更微妙的因素在起作用。在學校里參加體育比賽的女孩在年輕時就認識到，激進的競爭方式是可以接受的。她們還會發(fā)現(xiàn)成功并不依賴于“看上去很乖”，從取勝中獲得快樂不是壞事。這一點也許看起來十分明顯，至少對成年男性來說就是如此。但是對于那些飽受當代好萊塢青少年文化影響的年輕女孩來說，這就不那么不言自明了。事實上，當我考察孩子們?nèi)缃駨挠耙曋形盏降奈幕畔�，將它與我自己的童年時代相比較的時候，我感覺如今的女孩比過去更需要運動。對少女來說，參加運動是社會接受的少數(shù)競爭參與方式之一，而不會受到同齡人的指責。
This has at least two implications. First, it may suggest that if we want to find more futurefemale business and civic leaders, we should lookmore closely at athletes. Historically, professional women athletes tend to be steeredto coaching or commentators' jobs whentheir sporting careers dim. However, Brooke of E&Y is now trying to create a networkto turn more of them into entrepreneurs, and it will be interesting to see ifthis produces any results。
這至少有兩層含義。首先，這可能意味著，如果我們想要找到更多未來的女性商界和政界領(lǐng)導人，就應該更密切關(guān)注運動員。歷史上，職業(yè)女性運動員在運動生涯結(jié)束后，通常會轉(zhuǎn)去做教練或評論員之類的工作。不過，安永的布魯克正試圖建立一個網(wǎng)絡(luò)，讓她們更多進入企業(yè)界，我將對此事的結(jié)果拭目以待，一定很有趣。
But second - and most obviously - we need tokeep young girls playing sport. In my case, I was lucky enough to grow up competing extensively (lacrosse and netball were my passion). I am now trying to ensure that my own daughters do so too. However, this is a luxury of sorts. As public educational budgets get squeezed - and cyber distractions grow - it is becoming harder, not easier, for many girls to do team sports. That is a tragedy. If we want to get more strong female leaders, we must celebrate competition at a young age. Or, at least, teach them the links between struggle and success; even - or especially - in an age of instant gratification where kids prefer to say “don't sweat it”。
不過第二點，也是最明顯的一點，就是我們必須讓年輕女孩多多運動。就我自己來說，我運氣不錯，成長的過程中參加了大量比賽，我最喜歡的運動是兜網(wǎng)球和英式籃球。如今我正努力確保自己的女兒也參加大量運動。不過，這在某種程度上是個奢望。由于公共教育開支遭到削減，網(wǎng)絡(luò)又越來越分散人們的注意力，對許多女孩來說，參加團體運動正變得更加困難，而不是更容易。這真是一場悲劇。如果我們想要培養(yǎng)更強悍的女性領(lǐng)導人，就必須讓女性從年輕時起就喜歡競爭�；蛘咧辽伲覀円屗齻兞私獾綂^斗與成功間的聯(lián)系——即使這是個圖一時之快、孩子們喜歡說“別費那個勁了”的時代�；蛘哒f，尤其因為如此，我們更要教會她們這一點。
