9.Womenomics
9.“她”经济
The flood of women into the job marketboosted economic growth and changed U.S. society in many ways. Many in-homejobs that used to be done primarily by women — ranging from family shopping topreparing meals to doing voluntary work — still need to be done by someone.
大量妇女涌入职场促进了经济的发展,而且从很多方面改变了美国社会。很多以前大部分由妇女完成的家务活——从家庭采购、准备三餐到义务工作——现在仍然需要有人来完成。
Husbands and children now do some of thesejobs, a situation that has changed the target market for many products. Or aworking woman may face a crushing "poverty of time" and look for helpelsewhere, creating opportunities for producers of frozen meals, child carecenters, dry cleaners, financial services, and the like.
于是现在丈夫和孩子开始做其中的一些工作,这个状况已经改变了很多产品的目标市场。或者说一个职业女性可能面临严重的时间匮乏,并从其他地方寻找帮助,从而给速冻食品制造商、托儿所、干洗店、金融服务以及类似机构创造了机会。
Although there is still a big wage gapbetween men and women, the income working women generate gives them newindependence and buying power. For example, women now purchanse about half ofall cars. Not long ago, many cars dealers insulted women shoppers by ignoringthem or suggesting that they come back with their husbands.
虽然说男女之间的工资水平仍有很大差距,但是职业妇女的收入给她们带来了新的独立性以及购买力。例如,目前市场上有近一半的汽车是妇女购买的。而在不久之前,很多汽车商还这样侮辱女性消费者:他们忽视女性或是建议她们和丈夫一块儿来看。
Now car companies have realized that womenare potential customers. It's interesting that some leading Japanese cardealers were the first to really pay attention to women customers. In Japan,fewer women have jobs or buy cars — the Japanese society is still very muchmale-oriented. Perhaps it was the extreme contrast with Japanese society thatprompted American firms to pay more attention to women buyers.
现在汽车公司意识到了妇女也是潜在消费者。更有趣的是,正是一些日本主要的汽车公司首先开始关注女性消费者的。在日本,很少有妇女工作或者购买汽车——日本社会仍然很大程度上是以男性为主导的。也许正是由于日本社会这种极端的对比促使了美国公司更加注重女性购买者。