What Do Women Leaders Have in Common?

女性领导者的共同点

Besides being women and leaders, that is

除了都是女性和领导人，还有……

By Sharmilla Ganesan

文/沙尔米拉·加尼森

On the surface, one would be hardpressed[1] to find many similarities between German chancellor Angela Merkel, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – except for the fact that they are all female leaders of nations. Merkel, for example, spent more than a decade as a chemist before going into politics, while Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s first president, attended college at the same time that she served as her father’s political liaison[2], and Johnson Sirleaf was Liberia’s minister of finance and worked at multiple financial institutions outside her country before running for vice president in 1985.

表面上看，很难找出德国总理安格拉· 默克尔、孟加拉国总理谢赫·哈西娜和利比里亚总统埃伦·约翰逊·瑟利夫三人之间的共同之处——除了她们都是女性国家领导人这一点。比如说，默克尔从政前曾从事化学研究十余年，孟加拉国开国总统之女哈西娜大学期间就担任其父的政治联络员，而约翰逊·瑟利夫在1985年竞选副总统之前还任过利比里亚的财政部长，并在多家海外金融机构有任职经历。

[1] hard-pressed 很难（做某事）。

 

[2] liaison 联络员；联系人。

But despite the vastly different cultural and political contexts that these women arose in – and the roughly 20 other female heads-of-state around the world – is there something deeper that they share? Answering that question could reveal how women in leadership are perceived around the world, and perhaps more importantly, the obstacles women continue to face in their quest for equal representation.

然而，尽管几位女性成长的文化与政治背景有着千差万别，她们之间，也包括全球另外约20位女性国家元首在内，是否有着更深层面的共同之处呢？这一问题的答案能够揭示世人是如何看待巾帼领袖的，更重要的也许是，它能让我们看清女性在追求平等代表权的道路上仍旧面临的障碍。

 

The researcher Susan R. Madsen of Utah Valley University says that while many studies have been done on leadership in different cultures, very few have focused on female leadership specifically. From 2009 to 2010 Madsen interviewed women in China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)[3] about their paths to leadership. She said she was surprised by the similarities among the women when they spoke about how they became leaders and advocates[4].

犹他谷州立大学研究员苏珊·R. 马德森称，虽然对不同文化中领导者的研究不在少数，但其中专门针对女性领导的研究却寥寥无几。2009到2010年，马德森采访了中国和阿拉伯联合酋长国（阿联酋）的一些女性领导人，一探她们的领袖之路。她说，听着她们讲述自己成为领导者、倡议者的历程，她感叹于这些女性之间的相似之处。

[3] 阿拉伯联合酋长国，简称阿联酋。

 

[4] advocate 拥护者；支持者；提倡者。

“Every single one of them talked about finding their voices and their confidence at dinner-table conversations with their families. Their parents talked about politics, about what was happening in the community, and when the women had something to say, their parents didn’t hush them,” Madsen said. In the UAE, where men and women were often separated, women that Madsen interviewed pointed to the role of their fathers in encouraging them to speak up. “Every woman I spoke to said her father would bring home books for her to read when he traveled, which most other people didn’t have.”

“她们无一例外地说到了和家人在餐桌上的交流让她们敢于说话，树立自信。父母会谈谈政治，聊聊社区的新鲜事，而当她们想发言时，父母从不阻止。”马德森如是说。在阿联酋，性别隔离是个普遍现象，而马德森采访的几位女性都提到了父亲对她们抒发己见的鼓励。“我采访的每位女性都说，父亲出远门时总会给她们带书回来，这是大多数人没有的待遇。”

As part of a series of interviews on women and leadership, I spoke to three women from different countries who have each become leaders in their respective fields: Agnes Igoye of Uganda, who works with her government to counter human trafficking[5]; Ikram Ben Said, the founder of Tunisian women’s-rights organization Aswat Nissa[6]; and Sairee Chahal of India, who started SHEROES[7], a digital platform that helps women get back into the workforce. In these conversations I saw Madsen’s observation borne out[8].

作为女性与领导力系列访谈的一部分，我采访了三位来自不同国度并在各自领域都成为领军人物的女性。一位是和政府共同致力于打击人口贩卖的乌干达女性艾格尼丝·伊戈耶，一位是突尼斯女性权利组织“女性的声音”的创始人伊克拉姆·本·赛义德，另一位是印度的赛丽·查哈尔，她创立了SHEROES数字平台，助力女性重回职场。在和她们的对话中，我发现马德森的论断得以证实。

[5] human trafficking 人口贩卖。

 

[6] = Voices of Women 突尼斯的一个非政府组织，意为“女性的声音”，致力于为女性争取平权。

 

[7] 印度一家帮助女性求职的在线平台。

 

[8] bear out 证实；为……作证。

All three of my interviewees pointed to the family environment they had been raised in – particularly a father figure who taught and empowered[9] the women in the family to learn, ask questions, and form their own opinions – as a key factor in their own growth. This, coupled with mothers or other older women who broke convention by displaying leadership within the family, was common source of early lessons on leadership.

三位受访者都将其成长的家庭环境——特别是一个懂得教导并赋权女性家庭成员去求知、提问、树己见的父亲形象——视为影响自身发展的重要因素。此外，母亲等女性长辈敢于打破传统，在家庭事务中一展权威。她们自幼便在父母熏陶下接受了领导力的启蒙教育。

[9] empower 增加（某人的）自主权。

Igoye, for example, credited her father with[10] having the foresight to send his daughters to school despite opposition from others in their village. Her mother went back to school as an adult to improve her career as a teacher, which Igoye described as being a big influence on her. Similarly, Ben Said talked about how her father encouraged political debate among the family when she was growing up, even when her opinions contradicted his. Meanwhile, Chahal said that even in her younger days, her parents went against the general convention of expecting their daughters to aspire only to a good matrimonial match[11].

比如伊戈耶就认为，父亲不顾同村人的反对，将女儿们都送进学校，乃是远见之举。母亲为发展其教师事业，成年后仍然重返校园，她说这对她影响很深。本·赛义德也说，在她成长的过程中，父亲鼓励家人之间进行政治辩论，即便她与父亲意见相左时也依然如此。查哈尔则说，从她年幼之时起，父母就逆常道而行，不希望找个如意郎君成为女儿们唯一的志向。

[10] credit with 认为……有（良好的品质或特点）。

 

[11] a good matrimonial match 文中指一个好妻子。

Another conclusion from Madsen’s work is that women’s leadership development doesn’t look like men’s. “Men are more strategic and [tend to follow] a more linear path to becoming a leader. Women’s paths are much more emergent[12]. They tend to not necessarily look ahead and think, ‘I want to be on top.’ Women would point to a number of experiences – motherhood, or working with a non-profit, or sitting on[13] a board, as shaping their path to becoming leaders,” she said. Madsen likens this to a “patchwork quilt[14]” of experiences – an aggregate that is more clear and cohesive together than as distinct parts.

马德森的另一研究结论显示，女性领导者的成长历程有别于男性。她说：“男性更有全局观，在通往领导岗位的过程中（往往走）一条更直线式的发展路径。而女性则要随遇而安得多。她们通常未必会目视前路、心中暗想：‘我要出人头地。’女性往往认为，是种种阅历共同铺就了她们的领导之路——比如身为人母，比如在非营利机构工作，又比如在董事会任职。”马德森把这比作一条由各种经历拼凑而成的“百衲被”——将这个集合视为一体比拆分开看更明了也更紧密。

[12] emergent 自然而然发生的。

 

[13] sit on sth 在……中任职。

 

[14] patchwork quilt 百衲被，指用多种不同色泽不同形状的布块拼缝而成的一种薄被。

Which is why women are more likely to take a grassroots route to politics, says Farida Jalalzai of Oklahoma State University, “Women are more likely to first get into public life through activism[15]; sometimes it is through their identities as mothers to work on a particular problem,” she explained.

俄克拉荷马州立大学的法丽达·贾拉勒扎伊说，这也就是为何女性的从政之路更易始于基层。她解释说：“女性更有可能通过积极行动初次步入公众视野；有时是因为母亲的身份让她们想在某些方面尽一份力。”

[15] activism 行动主义，主张通过实际行动表达诉求。

Another reason that women leaders may have some similarities is that they tend to be held to higher standards than their male counterparts, perhaps even more so in countries where there is dramatic gender inequality. Jalalzai has found this in her research. “We have to acknowledge that men are not faced with the suspicion that they can’t be good leaders simply because they are men,” she explained. “Tomorrow someone might say President Barack Obama was a complete failure, but no one is going to conclude from that that all men are bad leaders. So there’s a certain type of privilege that your success or failure is not going to reflect on your entire sex.”

女性领导也许有其共性的另一原因在于，她们常常面临着比男性更高的标准，在性别严重不平等的国家或许尤其如此。贾拉勒扎伊在研究中发现了这一点。“我们必须承认，男人仅仅因为是男人，就不会遭到别人对他们领导能力的怀疑。”她解释道，“可能明天就有人说贝拉克·奥巴马总统是个彻底的失败者，但没有人会因此下定论说男人当不了好领导。所以有一种特权是，你个人的成败不会牵连到你所属的性别整体。”

In Tunisia, for instance, Ben Said said the public is just beginning to accept and trust women in government. “The pressure is on them to perform, to deliver[16] results, so that people will be more encouraged to have more women in positions of leadership,” she told me. And Igoye has felt this in Uganda as well. “Women who take up leadership positions in my country have to be tough, it’s not easy at all,” she said. “You are always aware that you are representing all women. You have to work extra hard to deliver, to perform, because if you do something wrong, they will say, ‘Ah you see, women!’ ”

譬如，本·赛义德就说，在突尼斯，公众对女性执政者的接纳和信任才刚刚开始。她告诉我：“她们要谋其政、成其事，为的是公众能够更加拥戴更多女性走上领导岗位。”伊戈耶在乌干达也有同感。“在我们国家，女领导必须得强势，实为不易。”她说，“你时刻都忘不了你代表的是所有女性。你得格外努力，拿出成绩，拿出行动，因为你一旦行差踏错，就会有人说：‘哈看吧，女人！’”

[16] deliver 履行诺言；兑现。本段中出现的另一个deliver亦为此意。

It’s for this reason that merely having women leaders can change the opportunities available for generations of women in a country. As Madsen put it, “Bottom line, what leadership looks like in their country, how much of a voice the women leaders are having, influences what leadership is and what it means to its women. For example, in the Middle East, the top leaders are kings or sheikhs[17], and there is a big separation between the leaders and society. Oftentimes, the women of those cultures just don’t see themselves in those positions, so their understanding of leadership is more male.” And that, perhaps more than anything else, is what Ben Said, Chahal, Igoye, and other women like them around the world stand to change.

正因如此，拥有女性领导本身就能改变一个国家几代女性享有的机遇。如马德森所言：“最基本的一点，一个国家的领导层是以何面目示人的，女性领导拥有多少发言权，影响着该国领导力的本质及其对该国女性的意义。比如在中东地区，高层领导人都是国王或谢赫，领导阶层和民众之间相隔甚远。通常，这些文化中的女性根本无法想象自己也能身居高位，所以她们的观念里领导还是以男性为主。”而这一点，也许相比其他任何事情来说，正是本·赛义德、查哈尔、伊戈耶以及世界各地和她们一样的女性将要改变的。

[17] sheikh 音译为谢赫，文中指阿拉伯的亲王、酋长等。

（译者单位：天津铁道职业技术学院）