Some prominent businesswomen believe they are being asked to disclose more about their personal lives as they climb the career ladder than their male counterparts.
一些出色的商界女性认为，在职业生涯的上升期，她们往往需要比男同事透露更多的个人生活信息。
One seemingly innocent but frequently asked question illustrates the keen interest in the balance that women have to achieve between their professional and private lives – “how do you make it work?”
“你是如何做到工作家庭两不误的？”这是一个看似无意但却经常被问到的问题，表明人们非常好奇女性是如何在职业和个人生活之间取得平衡的。
Campaigners say that this question would hardly ever be put to a man and that it implicitly raises doubts over women’s commitment to their professional lives.
有经验的人表示，这个问题男人就很少被问及，而它也暗示了人们怀疑女性能否真正投入职业生活。
Similarly, in a recent interview for FT Executive Appointments, one female chief executive declined to answer questions about her home life, saying her own achievements might then be attributed to having a supportive husband and family – or to being single or childless.
同样，在FT Executive Appointments最近的一次访谈中，一位女首席执行官就拒绝回答关于她家庭生活的问题，她说不然自己的成就可能被归结为背后有一个支持自己的丈夫和家庭，或者她是单身，或者她没有孩子。
Deborah Meaden, the entrepreneur whose profile rose dramatically when she began appearing on the BBC’s popular television show Dragons’ Den, has developed strict boundaries around the parts of her life that she will and will not discuss.
企业家黛博拉•米登(Deborah Meaden)在BBC电视秀节目《龙穴之创业投资》(Dragons' Den)露面之后声名鹊起，关于个人生活中哪些方面能谈论，哪些方面不能谈论，她划定了明确的界限。
“I was fairly nervous about mentioning anything at the start, but I am clear now about what I will and won’t talk about, ” she explains. “You will never see a picture of my home, but there are stories that I have decided I don’t mind talking about – like the fact that I keep pigs and sheep. Who my friends are and what I do in my private life is not public information, ” she says.
“一开始的时候，谈到任何（关于我个人生活）的事情，我都会很紧张，但现在我已经很清楚自己愿意谈什么不愿意谈什么。”她解释道，“你永远都看不到我家的照片，但有些东西我也不介意去谈论，比如说我养猪养羊的事情。但我有哪些朋友以及我私生活中都做了些什么就不便公开了。”她接着说。
But she believes that the scale of interest in her personal life is the result of her media career, as much as her gender.
但她认为，人们对她的个人生活抱有浓厚兴趣，跟她从事传媒工作以及她的性别都有关系。
“There are more men in business and so it’s a fact that if you are a woman you are a rarity and therefore you will attract more interest. And there is interest in how your life works because the traditional form is that women look after the family. But a lot of business people go about their life without anyone being interested in their home life.”
“商界以男性居多，因此女性在商界就是‘珍稀动物’，也会吸引更多的目光。人们也会对你的生活方式感兴趣，因为传统上来看，妇女应该是家庭主妇。但很多商界人士就能平平静静过自己的生活，他们的家庭生活不会受到关注。”
Caroline Garnham, founder and chief executive of Family Bhive, the social networking website for wealthy individuals, says many high profile women fear the “JK Rowling experience”, where unwelcome public interest is extended to their children, who become a target for the media.
面向富人的社交网站Family Bhive的创始人兼首席执行官卡罗琳•伽汉姆(Caroline Garnham)指出，很多女名人都害怕“J•K•罗琳(JK Rowling)的经历”，公众过多的关注已经影响到了她的孩子们，使得他们成为媒体追逐的目标。
But, she adds, parents who maintain a balance between home and business are interesting. “People are interested in how women manage their lives. And I think that’s fine, it just depends on how the question is asked.”
但她也认为，那些能够在家庭和事业之间维持平衡的父母确实很令人感兴趣。“人们对女性如何打理自己的生活感兴趣。我认为这也没什么，关键在于问问题的方式。”
Peninah Thomson, director of the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme, is less sure that pursuing a line of questioning about successful women’s home lives is a good idea.
“富时100指数跨公司指导计划”的主管佩尼娜•汤姆森(Peninah Thomson)不赞同追问成功女性的家庭生活。
“It’s perhaps not surprising that women executives are frequently asked about how they balance their professional and their personal lives, but I’m not sure it’s helpful, ” she says.
“女性高管经常被问到她们如何在职业生活和个人生活之间达成平衡，这或许并不奇怪，但我不确定这样问有什么好处。”她说。
“It runs the risk of implying that senior women may be grappling with challenges that are insurmountable, when the evidence is that professional women are succeeding in resolving those challenges – that they can be addressed.”
“这样问好像是在暗示，女性高管需要克服很多难以逾越的挑战，但事实证明，职业女性能够成功应对这些挑战，这些挑战也是可以克服的。”
She admits that matters of childcare costs, taxation and career progression for women who take time out of work to have children are important and worth discussing, but would prefer that the focus of these debates was more positive: “Focusing relentlessly on the difficulties rather than arguing for creative solutions, doesn’t help.”
她承认，对于那些从工作中抽出时间来养育孩子的女性来说，照顾孩子的费用、纳税、职业发展等问题确实很重要，也值得去讨论。但她认为，人们讨论的重点应该放在更加积极的方面：“一味地关注困难，而不是寻找有创造性的解决方法，这是没有任何帮助的。”
The fact that Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management, has nine children is often raised in profiles written about her, but Rebecca Harding, chief executive of economics consultancy Delta Economics, believes this is because it is an eye-catching fact, not because she is a woman.
牛顿投资管理(Newton Investment Management)首席执行官海伦娜•莫里西(Helena Morrissey)有九个孩子的事实经常会出现在关于她的介绍中。Delta Economics首席执行官丽贝卡•哈定(Rebecca Harding)认为这是因为这个事实很引人注目，而不是因为她是一个女性。
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