剩女壓力:中國女性的兩難處境

CHINESE women have taken great strides, but many young women still find themselves caught in a dilemma. Growing up in an era of rapid economic and social development, they are more aware of gender issues than their mothers, so they feel more pressured in the traditional patriarchal society.

中國女性已大踏步前進，但許多年輕女性仍發(fā)現(xiàn)自己進退兩難。生長在一個經濟和社會快速發(fā)展的時代，她們比她們的母親更加意識到性別問題，所以在傳統(tǒng)的父權社會她們感到更多的壓力。

As an only child, they face high academic and career expectations. Many parents expect them to compete with men. But as they get older and excel in their careers, they are still expected to fulfill family duties to get married, bear a child and oversee a household.

作為獨生子女，她們承擔著太高的學術和職業(yè)期望。很多家長期望她們與男性競爭。但當她們年紀越來越大在事業(yè)上出類拔萃，她們仍被期望完成結婚生子以及照顧家庭的責任。

"My parents had very high expectations of me when I was little. They said I should compete with boys. Now they always say nobody is going to marry me because I'm too competitive," says 31-year-old Zhu Xiaoling, who was recently promoted in a local trading company. "That is very confusing and contradicts what they taught me."

“父母在我小時候對我期望很高。他們說我應該和男孩子競爭?，F(xiàn)在他們總是說沒有人要娶我，因為我太好強，”31歲的朱小玲說，她最近在當?shù)氐馁Q易公司獲得升職。“這與他們教我的非?；靵y和矛盾。”

Her parents were not happy about her promotion. In fact, she felt denigrated. They suggested the biggest reason for promotion was the fact she is unmarried, convincing her boss that she would spend more time at work than her peers, who are mostly switching their focus to family.

她的父母不喜歡她的晉升。事實上她覺得被侮辱了。他們認為升職的最大原因是她未婚的事實說服了她的老板，相比她的同齡人大部分將重心轉向家庭，她會花更多的時間在工作上。

"It was heartbreaking to hear this from my parents," Zhu says. "I understand their concerns, but they undervalue me and consider my work capability to be zero. That's not comforting when I face other work obstacles."

“從我的父母那聽到這個是令人心碎的，”朱說。“我理解他們的擔憂，但是他們低估了我，認為我的工作能力是零。當我面對其他工作困難時這不是安慰。”

At the same time, the disparaging phrase and mentality sheng nu, literally "leftover women," hangs over many career women, warning that their market value is declining ever faster after what is considered the prime time to marry and bear a child.

同時“剩女”(字面意思即“剩女”)的輕蔑短語和心態(tài)籠罩著許多職業(yè)女性，并警告其說當過了結婚生子的黃金年齡之后她們的市場價值下降得更快。

The age was once 30 but now it is 27. Still, many women, and especially their parents, really start to panic as they turn 25.

這個年齡曾經是30歲但現(xiàn)在是27歲。不過許多女性尤其是她們的父母在她們25歲之后就真的開始驚慌。

"Women PhDs" is another disparaging expression like "leftover women," because when a woman gets a PhD, she is often well past the so-called prime age and is no longer desirable.

“女博士”是另一個類似“剩女”的輕蔑表達，因為當一個女人取得博士學位，她通常已經過了所謂的黃金年齡并不再受歡迎。