职场女性互相扶助不容易

Who's Still Leaning In? It's Complicated
职场女性互相扶助不容易

This fall Sheryl Sandberg took the 'Lean In' message to China. Then she popped up at networking events from New York to Minneapolis. Last week, the mantra hit college campuses-and even men are getting in on the action.

今年秋季，Facebook Inc.首席运营长桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)将她的新书《向前一步》(Lean In)带到了中国。随后她又不时出席从纽约到明尼阿波利斯各地的社交活动。上周，《向前一步》活动来到大学校园──就连男士们也纷纷前来参与。

But more than six months after the Facebook Inc. executive's bestselling 'sort-of a feminist manifesto' for working women hit shelves, are women still leaning in together?

但这本针对职场女性、“可以说是女性主义宣言”的畅销书上市已逾六个月，女性是否仍然抱团？

To put it in the language of a Facebook update: It's complicated.

用Facebook上的一则更新消息中的话说：情况很复杂。

Sandberg set up an ambitious networking program for readers to form their own groups, called circles, to spread 'Lean In''s message of attaining career success. Marketing to book groups is not unusual for publishers, but Lean In circles go several steps further, with a curriculum for circle meetings, attendance guidelines and suggested themes for discussion-with some topics, such as career advice, deemed off-limits.

桑德伯格为读者设定了远大的社交计划，让读者形成自己的圈子，散布《向前一步》有关取得事业成就的信息。对出版商来说，向读书团体营销并不是什么不寻常的事情，但《向前一步》的圈子远不止于此，这本书的读者圈聚会是有课程安排的，参加聚会的指导以及有关讨论主题的建议──而诸如职业建议之类的话题是被禁止的。

The nonprofit group LeanIn.org says 10,000 circles have registered online so far. But when it comes to abiding by the rules, participants say things are decidedly more relaxed. Missions vary by group, and some are finding it's tough to squeeze meetings in amid busy careers and personal lives.

非营利组织LeanIn.org说，目前为止共有10,000个圈子在其网站上注册。至于遵守规则方面，参与者说，肯定就宽松很多了。不同群体的任务各不相同，一些人觉得很难在繁忙的工作和个人生活中挤出时间聚会。

'To be honest, I haven't even finished the book,' said Lieutenant Col. Erika Cashin, who runs a circle in Minneapolis for military women where there are 'really no rules.'

陆军中校卡欣(Erika Cashin)说，老实说，我甚至连这本书都没看完。她在明尼阿波利斯组织了一个针对军中女性的圈子，这个圈子基本上没有任何规则。

Her group doesn't have attendance rules, partly by necessity, since it has to work around deployments, and the members skipped lessons on pay parity because military pay is based on rank, not negotiation.

她的群组没有必须参与活动的规定，这在一定程度上也是不得已的，因为群组成员只能在调度部署之余参加活动，同时成员也忽略了有关薪酬对等的课程，因为军队的薪酬是由级别决定的，而不是通过谈判确定的。

But the group has helped foster a community of women in an arena dominated by men, Cashin says. The circle gives them a place to lay bare their other frustrations - like women being perceived more negatively when they're disciplinarians compared to men - and work toward solutions.

卡欣说，但这个群组帮助在一个由男性主导的领域培养了女性团体。这个圈子让她们得以有地方说出自己在其他方面遭遇的挫折──比如当女性纪律严明时，她们会比男性受到更多的非议──并想办法加以解决。

For her part, Sandberg aims to be at once meticulous and inclusive. At a private Lean In event in New York recently, she told the 300-person group that the circles were meant to be flexible.

桑德伯格自己致力于做到既一丝不 又兼收并蓄。不久前在纽约私下举办的一个《向前一步》的活动上，她对有300名成员的群组说，圈子本来就应当灵活变通。

While Lean In members are urged to steer clear of career advice in case it backfires and sours relationships, Sandberg has touted the importance of peer groups in her own rise as an executive.

虽然《向前一步》的圈子成员被要求避免提供职业方面的建议，以防适得其反、破坏成员间的关系，但桑德伯格一直强调同级同事群体在她自己成长为高管的过程中所起的重要作用。

To be sure, women's networking groups were common before Sandberg turned leaning in into a catchphrase.

诚然，在桑德伯格将“向前一步”变成口号之前，女性的社交群体本来就很常见。

Two years ago Cashin, a full-time Air Force reservist started organizing lunches and other meetups for fellow servicewomen. When 'Lean In' published, they started running the group as a circle.

卡欣是空军全职预备役军人，两年前她就开始为军中女性同僚组织午餐会和其他聚会。《向前一步》出版后，她们开始将这个群体作为一个圈子。

'I think, absolutely, I would be doing it anyways,' Ms. Cashin said of her military group. In competitive environments like the military, where Ms. Cashin noted that stereotypes of catty women prevail, 'this was a way to say we're not.'

卡欣说到她的军方群体时说，我觉得，不管怎样我肯定都会做这件事。卡欣强调说，在军队这种极具竞争性的环境中，认为女性阴险狡猾的成见十分盛行，“这是表明我们并非如此的方式”。

Like any book club that once began with highbrow literature only to devolve into wine-tasting night, Lean In members acknowledged it's not easy to stay focused.

很多读书俱乐部都是自高雅的文学起始，最终却沦为品酒之夜，《向前一步》的成员也不免承认，保持专注并不容易。

Linda Singfield started a circle of 15 women in New York's financial district. They've met a half-dozen times, and strive to keep the discussion on-topic -such as focusing on mentoring and negotiating raises. 'I don't want to be a sewing circle,' said Singfield, a 44-year-old vice president of human resources, operations and technology at Citigroup Inc.

辛费尔德(Linda Singfield)在纽约金融区发起了一个圈子，有15名女性成员。她们已经聚会了六次，并努力保持讨论切近主题──比如关注职场辅导以及谈判升职事宜等。44岁的辛费尔德说，我不想把这个圈子办成妇女缝纫会。她是花旗集团(Citigroup Inc.)负责人力资源、运营和科技方面的副总裁。

She already has a networking group through work, but said her Lean In circle is more intimate. 'At work you have your guard up. You don't know who's in the room who knows your boss,' she said.

她在工作中已经有一个社交群组，但表示《向前一步》的读书会圈子更为亲密。她说，你在工作中会有所防备，不知道谁会认识你的老板。

As was bound to be the case with heavily scheduled, highly ambitious women, interest is high but time is scant.

日程繁忙、极具雄心的女性必然都会遇到这样的情况：兴趣高涨，但时间拮据。

Shelley Serber, a New York graphic designer, has been planning to start a Lean In circle for observant Jewish women. They would, for instance, visit Jewish day schools and encourage young girls to pursue their dream careers. Weeks after hatching the plan, however, Serber and other interested women were still hard-pressed to find time to get started.

纽约平面设计师泽贝尔(Shelley Serber)一直计划为严谨的犹太女性创办一个《向前一步》的读书会圈子。她们的活动诸如参观犹太走读学校以及鼓励年轻女孩追求自己梦想的事业。但筹划了好几个星期，泽贝尔和其他有兴趣的女士仍然很难找到时间开始着手。

The big question is 'how are we going to make this work? It's really, how do we juggle it all?'

关键的问题是，“我们怎么才能让这个事情顺利进行？说到底就是，怎样才能处处兼顾？”