向前一步:第201期 让我们开始讨论吧(7)

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If there was enough time, I could recount centuries of discrimination against women. 要是时间足够的话，我还可以再历数一下几百年来人们对女性的歧视，

Or I could just slap the person across the face. 甚至可以为此抽这些人一耳光。

It was a no-win situation. I couldn't deny being a woman. 这是个不可能赢的局面，我不能不接受自己是个女人的事实。

And defending myself just made me seem ... defensive³. 而且，为自己辩护只会让我显得喜欢反驳别人。

My gut⁴ and the signals I received from others cautioned me that arguing the issue would make me sound like a strident feminist⁵. 我的直觉以及别人传递出的信号都在提醒我，为了这个问题争论，只会让自己看起来更像一个观点尖锐的女权主义者。

And I still did not want that. 我不希望这样，

I also worried that pointing out the disadvantages women face in the workforce⁶ might be misinterpreted as whining⁷ or asking for special treatment. 我也担心指出职场女性面临的种种不利，会被误读成要求给女性以特殊待遇。

So I ignored the comments. I put my head down and worked hard. 所以，我忽视了这些议论，只是低下头，努力地工作。

Then, as the years ticked by, I started seeing female friends and colleagues drop out of the workforce. 时间一年年地过去，我开始发现我周围的女性朋友和女同事正在慢慢退出职场。

Some left by choice. Others left out of frustration⁸, pushed out the door by companies that did not allow flexibility⁹ 有些人是自己选择离开的；有些人是出于绝望和沮丧而被迫离开那些工作时间不容变通的公司，

and welcomed home by partners who weren't doing their share of the housework and child rearing. 回到缺乏伴侣理解与支持的家里；

Others remained but scaled back their ambitions to meet outsized demands. 还有些人留在职场，但收敛了自己的事业心，不再想走得更远、更高。

I watched as the promise my generation had for female leadership dwindled¹⁰. 我亲眼看着我们这一代的女性领导者的前景正在变得黯淡。

By the time I had been at Google for a few years, I realized that the problem wasn't going away. 在谷歌工作了几年后，我意识到这个问题仍然存在，

So even though the thought still scared me, I decided¹¹ it was time to stop putting my head down and to start speaking out. 所以即使心里有些害怕，但我还是认为自己不能只顾着埋头苦干，而是应该站出来勇敢地表达内心的想法。

 

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