Melanne Verveer: There is recognition today that we cannot possibly solve our global challenges, whether they concern the environment, governance, economic policy or security, unless women are full participants. We have to move “women’s issues” from the margins to the mainstream and recognize that the issues are not only about women’s roles, but are about the kind of world we want to create. To the extent that women participate, succeed and help make a difference, everyone benefits — men and women, boys and girls.
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 目前社会各界已经达成广泛共识，如果女性不能全面参与，我们将很难解决环境、治理、经济政策及安全等各个方面的全球性问题。我们必须将被边缘化的“妇女问题”纳入主流社会的议程，并认识到这些问题不但关系到妇女的作用，也关系到我们要创造什么样的世界。如果女性能够参与、获得成功并发挥影响，则每一个人——无论男女、亦无论男孩或女孩——都将从中受益。
Q: Why is women’s participation so vital to the well-being of all societies?
问：为什么妇女参与对全社会的福祉如此重要？
MV: There is a mountain of data that correlates investments in women to poverty reduction — even to decreases in corruption — which I think we need to take very seriously. Similarly, there are studies on the consequences of gender inequality. For example, the World Economic Forum puts out an annual report called the Gender Gap Report. It measures the progress of men and women in terms of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political participation, health and survival. Where men and women are closer to equal achievement in all of those areas, those countries are far better off. Where that gap is wider, it’s a different story. This has been repeated in study after study. We have to pay attention to the hard data, and what the data tell us is this is the smart thing to do, to invest in women and provide them with opportunities to fully participate in their societies.
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 大量数据表明，对妇女投资能够减少贫困，甚至能够减少腐败。我认为我们应该对此认真看待。另外，还有很多关于性别歧视后果的研究报告，例如世界经济论坛（World Economic Forum）每年发布的《性别差距报告》（Gender Gap Report）。它分别衡量男性和女性在经济参与和机会、受教育程度、政治参与度以及健康和生存等方面取得的进展。一个国家的男性和女性在所有这些领域取得的成绩越接近，其状况越好；如果差距很大，则情况完全不同。一项又一项的研究都反复证明了这一点。我们必须重视这些硬数据，这些数据告诉我们，投资于女性并在社会中为她们提供全面参与的机会是明智之举。
Q: In 1995 the landmark U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing. What did it accomplish, and is it still relevant?
问：1995年，具有里程碑意义的联合国第四次世界妇女大会（U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women）在北京召开。大会取得了哪些成果？对现在是否还有意义？
MV: It brought together 189 countries to really look at the progress of women and specifically to adopt a Platform for Action. That Platform for Action focused on a number of critical areas, including women’s access to education, health care, economic and political participation; women’s ability to be free from violence; to have legal rights; the girl child; the role of women in conflict societies; and the role of women in peace and security. It was a major, ambitious blueprint that the United States and 188 other countries signed on to, making commitments to go back to our own countries to chart progress for women and girls. That was significant then, and it continues to be extremely significant today. Fifteen years later, the Platform for Action is still the blueprint against which many of our countries, NGOs and others measure the advancement of women. There has been a lot of progress, but there still are challenges. Laws have been passed. They haven’t always been implemented, but much has changed for the better.
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 189个参加大会的国家认真审视了妇女取得的进步，并特别通过了《行动纲领》（Platform for Action）。《行动纲领》涉及多个重要领域，包括女性接受教育、获得医疗保健的机会以及经济和政治参与；女性保护自己免遭暴力的能力；获得合法权利；女童；女性在冲突社会中的作用；以及女性在和平和安全方面的作用等。这是美国及其他188个国家签署的重要且宏大的蓝图，代表们承诺归国后帮助妇女及女孩制定取得进展的规划。这在当时意义重大，而且在今天仍具有极其重要的意义。15年后，《行动纲领》依然是许多国家、非政府组织及其他机构衡量妇女进步的蓝本，但仍有不少挑战。已通过了许多法律；这些法律并没有全部得到落实，但情况仍大有改善。
Q: Where has the most progress been made, and where does the world still have work to do?
问：哪些领域取得的进步最大，哪些领域尚需努力？
MV: Girls’ education is in a much better place than it was when the Beijing Platform was adopted, but we are not where we need to be. While more and more girls are in primary school, we don’t have anywhere near the numbers with access to secondary education. Investing in a girl determines what her future will be like — and her potential family’s future — her economic possibilities, her health and her children’s education. More women are being elected to parliaments, but the numbers are still below what they should be, given that women make up half the population of the world and it is important to have their experiences and talents involved in policymaking.
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 女孩受教育状况比《行动纲领》刚推出时已有明显改善，但仍未达到理想状况。虽然越来越多的女孩进入小学学习，但接受中学教育的人数要少得多。对女孩的投资决定着她们的未来——可能还有其家庭的未来——她们的经济机会、健康以及子女的教育。虽然已有越来越多的女性被选入议会，但比例仍然偏低。鉴于女性人口占世界总人口的一半，在决策中纳入她们的经验和才能具有重要作用。
Economically, women are participating in more significant ways. Microcredit, for example, has had a transformative impact, lifting up the poorest of the poor and creating livelihoods so people can sustain themselves and their families. Laws have been passed dealing with violence against women, family law reform and other intractable issues. Now such laws must be better implemented and enforced. There is a definite record of progress. Governments, civil society and those who have charted this path toward a better future can take justifiable pride in that, but we have to keep at it to reach our goals.
经济上，女性正在以更加重要的方式参与。例如，小额信贷产生了变革性影响——改善了最贫困人口的生活并提供了谋生之道，从而使人们得以维持自己及家庭的生活。已通过了制裁对女性施暴以及其他棘手问题的法律，并改进了家庭法。现在必须更好地实施和执行这些法律。进步是显著的。政府、民间团体以及为了更美好的未来而开辟道路的人们应该对此感到自豪，但我们还必须为实现这一目标而不懈努力。
Q: What are the most important emerging global women’s issues?
问：近年来新出现的最重要的全球妇女问题有哪些？
MV: We still have an agenda to complete. We have to be more creative. One of the challenges is to bring new tools to the table, tools that do a better job enhancing economic progress. Microcredit is one of the great financial tools, but we need broader financial inclusion: savings and other ways that poor people can be insured against cataclysms of one kind or another. Financial tools can bring creative solutions, as can technology. I personally think that mobile technology has the potential to be as transformative as microcredit has been. Cellphones are more accessible to the poor. Cellphone applications are being developed to help improve health care. The cellphone is being used for banking, teaching literacy, safeguarding women from violence and creating economic opportunities.
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 我们要解决的问题还有很多。我们必须更富于创造性。难题之一是创造出能够更好地推动经济进步的新工具。虽然小额贷款是一个很好的融资手段，但我们需要扩大金融行业的包容性，提供储蓄服务，确保贫困人口能够针对各类灾难未雨绸缪。金融工具能够带来创造性的解决方案，科学技术也一样。我个人认为，移动通信技术有可能像小额贷款一样产生变革性影响。手机在贫困人口中越来越普遍，改善医疗服务的手机应用程序也正在开发之中。手机已被广泛用于银行业务、传授知识、保护女性免遭暴力及创造经济机会等方面。
One important example concerns cookstoves. The black carbon emitted from dirty cookstoves — on which millions of poor people cook — is detrimental to the health of millions of people. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is creating a market for low-emissions cookstoves, to help reduce the damaging health and environmental impacts of black carbon. It’s an economic empowerment issue because selling and maintaining cookstoves is a new green industry, especially for women. Cooking is not the major contributor to climate change, but low-emissions cookstoves can address one aspect of it.
《北京行动纲领》中一直有一项环境内容，但未就气候变化本身做任何说明。对这一点我们自1995年以来开始有了更多了解。我们再次看到妇女在这方面可以发挥的作用，尤其在受气候变化影响最为严重和最容易遭受干旱或洪灾等自然灾害的地区。我们必须鼓励妇女在应对和减缓气候变化方面发挥作用。一个重要的例子是炉灶。千百万贫困人口用来做饭的旧式炉灶所排放的黑碳对健康造成危害。为此，全球清洁炉灶联盟（Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves）正在开辟低排放炉灶的市场，以帮助降低黑碳对健康和环境的影响。这是一个与增强妇女权能有关的经济问题，因为炉灶销售及维修属新兴绿色产业，尤其对女性而言。做饭不是影响气候变化的主要因素，但低排放炉灶可以解决其中一个方面的问题。
Q: What role must men play in ensuring women’s empowerment and advancement around the world?
问： 要确保在全球范围内增强妇女权能和提高妇女地位，男人必须承担什么样的角色？
MV: Men have a central, critical, important role to play. Women’s progress has never come through women’s efforts alone. We cannot possibly solve some of the most serious challenges that women confront — the inequality of women around the globe, the scourge of violence against them — unless men are involved in solutions. The way boys are raised, the image of what a man should be and how that’s presented, are opportunities to develop good habits in the next generation. We know the critical role that religious leaders — who are mostly men — can play. We need political will and enlightened male leaders at the highest levels of government, multilateral institutions and companies to become full participants in the advancement of women’s empowerment.
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 男人可发挥核心、关键、重要的作用。妇女的进步从来都不是仅仅来自其自身的努力。没有男人的参与，我们就不可能解决妇女面临的一些最大的挑战——全球各地的男女不平等以及针对女性的暴力等。怎样培养男孩、他们心目中的男人应该是什么样子以及如何帮助他们树立正确的看法都是在下一代身上培养良好习惯的机会。我们都知道宗教领袖——他们多为男性——可以发挥关键作用。我们需要政治意愿，需要政府、多边机构及企业最高层的开明男性领导人全面参与增强女性权能的工作。
Q: The United States does not have a perfect record on women’s issues. Our Congress has a lower percentage of female elected officials than some foreign parliaments and has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Domestic violence and human trafficking are issues in the United States. Is the United States in a position to lead the world on women’s empowerment?
问：美国在妇女问题上并非完美无缺。我国国会女议员的比例低于一些其他国家的比例，而且尚未批准联合国《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》（Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women，CEDAW）。家庭暴力和人口贩卖问题在美国依然存在。美国能够在增强妇女权能方面领导世界吗？
MV: We have a lot of work to do at home, as every other country does. In no country in the world are men and women equal. But I think the fact that we address many of our problems or are working at addressing them does certainly resonate internationally. We’ve created legislation to combat violence against women, which was first adopted in the 1990s. Our trafficking law wasn’t passed until 2000, but we worked at it and it is a model for the world. It may help other countries to see the path we took to address the challenges, how we created coalitions, and why we set prevention, prosecution and protection as lynchpins in the violence against women law and in the trafficking law (Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000).
梅兰妮·弗维尔： 与所有其他国家一样，我们还有很多工作要做。世界上没有哪个国家真正做到了男女平等。不过我认为，我们已经解决或者正在着力解决这些问题，这些努力在国际上一定会产生影响。我们制定了打击对女性施暴的法律——最初在上世纪90年代通过。虽然我们的反人口贩运法案直到2000年才通过，但是我们作出了不懈努力，现在它已成为全世界的范本。它可以帮助其他国家了解我们应对这一挑战的途径——我们如何建立联盟，以及我们为何把防范、惩处和保护作为对女性施暴法和人口贩运法（《2000年人口贩运和暴力受害者保护法》（Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000）的重点。
I often talk about the women who, in 1848, traveled to that first equal rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. And I often think of the diary of a young girl who looked back on the course that she chose to take, which was to get in a stagecoach, leave her home and to make that trip. She did it because in the United States at the time, women could not vote. She could not keep her meager earnings — if she had meager earnings. She could not access formal education; she could not get a divorce if she found herself in a terrible marriage. She knew life needed to be better and she went off on that journey to the equal rights convention not knowing, as she said, if anybody else would be on that road. Well, we know what progress our country has made. We are still on that road. Women everywhere are on that journey and we need each other. And — just as importantly — we need good men to join us as they, too, traveled to the Equal Rights Convention. We may be in different places on the journey. The United States has come a long way from 1848, when that young woman decided to make the trip to Seneca Falls, but we still have a ways to go. All over the world, women who face difficult situations need to chart progress. So we’re not perfect, but we work at these issues and in many ways we have succeeded and can help others address similar challenges.
我经常说起1848年前往纽约州塞尼卡福尔斯（Seneca Falls）参加首次平权大会（Equal Rights Convention）的那些女性。我并经常想到一个年轻女孩的日记，她在日记中回顾了她的旅程，即乘上驿站的马车，离开家乡上路。她这样做是因为当时在美国女性不能投票。她不能保留她的微薄收入——如果她有微薄收入的话。她得不到正式教育；她不得离婚，即使她身陷糟糕的婚姻。她知道生活必须更好，于是踏上参加平权大会的旅程，并不知道——如她自己所说——这条道路上是否有其他人。现在，我们知道我国已经取得了什么样的进步。我们仍继续走在这条路上。全球各地的女性都走在这条路上，我们需要互相帮助。同样重要的是，我们需要善良的男性加入我们的队伍，就像当年他们前去参加平权大会一样。在这条道路上我们可能走在不同的路段。自1848年那位年轻女孩决定启程前往塞尼卡福尔斯以来，美国已经走过了一段很长的道路，但仍然任重而道远。世界各地身陷困境的女性必须开辟进步之路，我们虽不是完美无缺，但我们在努力解决这些问题，而且已经在许多方面获得成功，并能够帮助其他人应对类似的挑战。
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