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The 2018 midterms were huge for women candidates.
对那些女性候选人来说，2018年中期选举有着非凡的意义。
In Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn became the state's first woman senator.
玛莎·布莱克本成了田纳西州第一位女参议员。
Over in Massachusetts, Ayanna Pressley is the first African-American woman elected to the House from any state in New England.
北边的马萨诸塞州，阿雅娜·普里斯利则成了新英格兰地区各州中第一位当选众议员的非裔美国女性。
In Maine, voters chose Janet Mills to be the state’s first woman governor.
缅因州的选民选择了珍妮特·米尔斯担任该州的第一位女州长。
Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland became the first Native American women elected to Congress.
莎莉丝·戴维斯和德布·哈兰德成了第一批当选为国会议员的印第安女性。
A total of 273 women were on the ballot in the 2018 midterms, representing both parties.
2018年中期选举期间共有273名女性登上选票名单，代表国会两党。
Now compare that to the past five elections — that’s a big jump in women candidates vying for office.
与过去五次选举相比，本届选举中女性竞选者的人数有了大幅增加。
So, women must be pretty well represented in the US government now, right?
如此看来，美国政府里现在应该有足够多的女性代表了吧?
Not exactly.
不见得。
The share of women in the House and Senate has increased over time,
女性在国会上下两院的席位都已经随着时间的推移有所增加了，
but it’s still well below the share of women in the US population.
但目前还是远低于美国人口中女性的比例。
And if you dig deeper, Congress looks even less representative.
深入研究你就会发现国会的代表率似乎更低。
Women of color make up 18% of the US population.
有色人种女性占到了美国人口的18%。
But, before the 2018 midterms they accounted for just 7% of Congress.
然而，2018年中期选举之前，她们只占了国会7%的席位。
And LGBT women make up 2.5% of the US population,
LGBT女性占到了美国人口的2.5%，
but there are only two openly LGBT women in Congress -- that's less than 1%.
但国会中只有两名公开的LGBI女性议员——算起来还不到国会席位的1%。
Even with the recent wins by women candidates in the 2018 midterms, there’s still a long way to go before they’re fully represented.
即便女性候选人在最近的2018年中期选举中节节胜利，但女性要在政治圈获得足够的席位还是有很长的路要走。
And this underrepresentation can have very real policy consequences.
从政策的角度来看，这种代表率不足可能会产生非常现实的后果。
Take a look at this chart showing what 2018 congressional candidates spent time talking about.
看看这张关于2018年国会候选人花时间谈论的话题的图表。
Women were much more likely than men to discuss issues like education, climate change, and minimum wage.
女性候选人讨论教育、气候变化和最低工资等问题的几率要比男性候选人高得多。
There’s even evidence that women make better lawmakers.
甚至还有证据表明女性在立法工作中也比男性表现更好。
One study found that female lawmakers bring in 9% more federal spending for their constituents than their male counterparts.
一项研究发现，女性议员为她们的选民拉动的联邦支出比男性议员要多9%，
And that’s on top of the fact that women lawmakers sponsor more bills than male legislators.
还是在女性议员比男性议员支持的法案更多的基础上做出的这一成绩。
This success might actually help explain why women are less likely to run for office than men in the first place.
她们的这一成功或许也有助于解释为什么女性竞选公职的可能性比男性低。
Many women underestimate their qualifications and perceive gender bias among voters, which discourages them from running.
因为许多女性都低估了自己的资历，并且认为选民中存在性别偏见问题，正是这一疑虑打消了她们竞选的积极性。
Because of these extra hurdles, only the most talented and ambitious women seek office.
由于存在这些额外的障碍，所以只有最有才华、最有抱负的女性才会谋求官职。
While there’s still more room for growth for women to be accurately represented in government,
虽然女性距离在政府中获得足够的代表率仍有很大空间，
there’s evidence to show that the more women are elected, the more they inspire other women to run.
但有证据表明，当选的女性越多，就越能激励其他女性同胞参加竞选。
One study found that if a state elected a woman senator or governor,
某研究还发现，如果一个州选举了一位女性担任参议员或州长，
an average of seven additional women would run for the state government in the following election cycle.
在接下来的选举周期中，参加州政府竞选的女性人数平均能比以往多出7名。
The women that were elected during the 2018 midterms will help inspire other women to run for office in the future.
2018年中期选举中当选的女性将有助于激励其他女性在未来竞选政府公职。
And as more women join government, their representation will become more and more normalized.
而且，随着越来越多的女性加入政府，女性在政府中的代表率将越来越接近规范水平。
And eventually — a video like this won’t even be necessary.
最终，我们也将不再需要制作当前这样的视频来提醒大家了。
