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Business
商业报道
Women in management
女性管理者
A word from your sponsor
后台一句话的事
Time for women to stop being shrinking violets at work
职场女性，从此不再羞答答的
I DON'T know any successful women who haven't had a powerful sponsor in their organisation to give them their first big break, says Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, the boss of 20-first, a consultancy that helps companies put more women into senior jobs.
在一个组织里，对于女性而言，没有过硬的后台帮助她们完成人生的首次突破，还能够风生水起的，我实在是没咋地见过，阿维娃·维滕贝格-考克斯，性别顾问公司20-First总裁，如是说。
That sentiment is echoed by many people who work in this field.
顾问公司20-First帮助很多的公司，让更多的女性做高层领导。她的这一观点得到众多同行的呼应。
But why do women need so much help?
但是为啥女性需要那么多的帮助呢？
Many women who climb the corporate ladder have sponsors, too.
许多女性要想晋升，必须有后台，这一道理同样适用于公司。
Indeed, they find it easier than women to persuade a senior colleague to sponsor them. They are also less likely to build up useful networks of contacts.
确实，女性要想劝高层领导帮助自己，不是件太难的事。
But women need help more because they are generally more reluctant to promote themselves.
但是女性需要更多的帮助，原因就是，一般来的来说，她们不愿意推销自己。同时，她们也不大可能去建立一个对自个有用的关系网。
That may help to explain why women, although they now enter white-collar jobs in much the same numbers as men in many countries, still find it so hard to get anywhere near the executive suite.
这也解释了这样一个现象，在很多的国家，白领女性的数量跟男性持平，但是女性进入高管还是一个字，难。
A new report, Sponsor Effect: UK, produced by the Centre for Talent Innovation, a New York think-tank, offers a detailed picture of the female talent pipeline in Britain, based on a survey of about 2,500 graduate employees, mostly of large companies.
一份新的报告，《后台效应：英国》，制作者为纽约智囊团人才创新中心，详述描绘了英国女性人才的分布状况。这份报告的制作，是基于对2500个左右研究生雇员的调查，且她们基本上都来自大公司。
It notes that although women in Britain account for 57% of new recruits to white-collar jobs, they make up just 17% of executive directors and a mere 4% of chief executives of the FTSE's 100 biggest companies.
它指出，虽然女性新雇员占白领比例57%，但是在富时指数的100个大公司里，执行理事也就17%，首席执行官只有可怜的4%。
It is not that the women lack ambition, says the report.
报告表示不是说女性没有雄性壮志。
No less than 79% of senior women in the sample said they aspired to a top job and 91% were keen to be promoted.
调查者中，多达79%的大龄女性表示希望成为高管，91%希望得到晋升。
Nor, say the authors, are they necessarily held back by family responsibilities:
作者称，家庭责任并不一定会拖累她们：
nearly two in five of those aged 40 or over had no children.
年龄在40或是以上的，接近五分之二，是没有孩子的，有五分之三的女性是有孩子的，这个确实不假。
Three in five of the over-40s did have children, and talented women who quit work to raise kids are not included in the sample.
那些为了照顾孩子而放弃工作的才女们并不在这个范围之内。
Still, the survey's main finding is striking.
仍然，这个调查的主要发现还是会吓人一跳。
Only 16% of the sample had sponsors, defined as people several levels above them who give them career advice, introduce them to contacts and help them get promotions.
调查者中，只有16%的人有后台，后台的意思指的是那些比她们的位子要高那么几级的人，在工作当中给予她们建议，给她们接触的机会，帮助她们晋升。
Having a sponsor dramatically improves a woman's career prospects.
有个后台，女性在职场上的路要好走非常多。
The British report is a follow-on from a similar study by the CTI on America, The Sponsor Effect, published last year by the Harvard Business Review.
这份英国报告，其实是美国CTI的一份类似研究的后续。
The CTI is now working on India;
这份研究的名称为《后台效应》，去年在期刊《哈佛商业评论》上出版。
Germany may come after that.
CTI现在正在对印度进行研究；印度之后可能就是德国。
It is also preparing a road map to make it easier for women everywhere to find sponsors.
CTI同时也在酝酿一幅公路图，目的就是为了让各地的女性更好地找到后台。
Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the CTI's boss, who co-wrote the report, says there are some differences between countries.
西尔维亚·安·休利特，CTI老板，是此份报告的共同撰写者。她说，各个国家的情况真的还不大一样。
But the broad picture is similar everywhere:
但是从更大范围来看，情况其实差不多：
women underestimate the importance of sponsorship and fail to cultivate business relationships effectively.
女性低估了后台的力量，并且没能够有效地培养商业关系。
This may be true, but networking takes time, often after hours.
这可能是对的，但是关系网的维护还是需要时间的，尤其是下班时间。
Are women with children equally willing to put in that extra time?
那么，女性会把跟孩子在一起的时间花在培养关系网上吗？
Drawing attention to the problems of women in upper management makes a useful change from the usual lament about the lack of women on boards.
把注意力集中到高管女性的问题上，而不是像往常一样，哀叹董事会的女性怎么就这么少，要有用的多了。
The scarcity of both is a symptom of something bigger:
高管女性和董事会女性的稀缺只是问题的一个症状，更大的问题是：
a lot of employers neither know nor care how many senior women they have working for them.
许多老板对这个有多少女性在为他工作上，不关心也不在乎。
Studies show a correlation between more women in senior positions and superior company performance, though it is hard to know whether more sexual diversity improves performance or top-notch firms promote more women.
研究显示，女性高管越多，公司的表现越好，这之间是有一定的关系的，虽然还不是很确定，到底是性别多样化促进绩效呢，还是一流的公司更多的提拔女性呢。
How much can sponsorship help?
后台到底能有多大用？
Ms Wittenberg-Cox is glum.
维滕贝格·考克斯女士不清楚。
She says there have been so many initiatives that many firms suffer from diversity fatigue,
她说，有太多的公司因为性别单一而缺乏主动性，
but none has dealt with the appalling reality of the pipeline.
但是并没有什么人来解决这个可怕的人才分布事实。
The only remedy, she reckons, is a change of thinking at the top.
她觉得，唯一的解救方法，恐怕就是高层的变动。
