美國：高檔吸奶器背后的辛酸

When I first moved to America more than a decade ago, I was fascinated by a piece of marketing I saw for a breast-pump. This picture depicted a woman in an executive suit hopping on to a private plane, carrying a briefcase that concealed a breast-pump, with a storage section for the milk.

10多年前，當我剛移居美國時，我被一則吸奶器廣告吸引了。圖片上畫的是一名身穿套裝的女性登上一架私人飛機，手里拿著一個公文包，里面藏著一套吸奶器，還有存放奶汁的分區(qū)。

It was very different from the pictures of breast-pumps I had seen in Europe, which presented soft-focus pictures of mothers sitting down at home, surrounded by domestic accessories. And since I was pregnant myself at the time, the new image seemed exhilarating. Never mind the fact that you were having a baby, the advert seemed to declare that anyone could still hold a high-powered job and keep breastfeeding their baby — even while hopping on an executive jet.

這與我在歐洲看到的吸奶器圖片非常不同，在歐洲，廣告商會使用軟焦點的畫面，比如媽媽坐在家中，周圍是家居飾件。當時我自己在懷孕，因此美國的新形象似乎令人振奮。這則廣告似乎在宣告，不要介意你將要成為母親，任何人都可以既做女強人，又給寶寶喂奶，即使在登上公務機時也不例外。

A decade later, however, I can also see a dark side in the cultural symbolism.

然而，10年后，我也看到了這種文化象征主義的陰暗面。

In some ways America is one of the best countries in the world to be a working woman. It has a long list of inspiring female leaders, from Janet Yellen (head of the Federal Reserve) or Nancy Pelosi (leader of the House Democrats) to chief executives such as Ginni Rommety (IBM) and Irene Rosenfeld (Mondelez International), and so on. Indeed, I personally have found New York to be the most supportive environment for a working woman that I have ever experienced: this is a place where ambition is accepted, even with babies and breast-pumps.

從某種程度來講，美國是世界上成為職業(yè)女性的最佳國家之一。在美國，鼓舞人心的女性領(lǐng)袖數(shù)不勝數(shù)，從美聯(lián)儲(Fed)主席珍妮特•耶倫(Janet Yellen)、眾議院民主黨領(lǐng)袖南希•佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)，到無數(shù)女性首席執(zhí)行官，如IBM的羅睿蘭(Ginni Rommety)和億滋國際(Mondelez International)的艾琳•羅森菲爾德(Irene Rosenfeld)。的確，我個人認為紐約是我經(jīng)歷過的最支持職業(yè)女性的環(huán)境;這是一個雄心被認可的地方，即便你有寶寶和吸奶器。

But there is a catch. America is also a tough place for new mothers. After all, the reason why executive-style breast-pumps are on the market is that many women rush back to work extremely quickly after giving birth. Sometimes that is a personal choice. But it reflects something else: giving birth can come with big financial costs.

然而，這里面有個問題。對于新手媽媽，美國也是一個艱辛的地方。畢竟，市場上可以買到高管風格的吸奶器，是因為很多女性在生下寶寶后很快回到工作崗位。有時這是一種個人選擇。但它反映出其他的東西：生孩子可能要付出巨大財務代價。

Most notably, the US is the only industrialised country that has no national law requiring companies to provide paid family leave when a woman gives birth. Indeed, it was not until 1993 that America introduced national laws protecting women’s rights to take a few — unpaid — days to give birth.

最值得一提的是，美國是唯一一個沒有全國性法律要求公司為產(chǎn)婦提供帶薪家庭假的工業(yè)化國家。實際上，直到1993年，美國才制定全國法律保護女性在生育時休幾天無薪產(chǎn)假的權(quán)利。

For some, that does not matter. A few liberal states, such as California, New York and Washington, have introduced their own state-level laws that mandate family leave for new mothers, at a very basic level of pay. Most large companies offer it as a benefit to their full-time employees too.

對于一些人而言，這并不重要。幾個自由派的州，例如加州、紐約州和華盛頓州，已推出州立法律，強制規(guī)定面向新手媽媽的家庭假，為她們保障基本工資。多數(shù)大公司也為全職員工提供產(chǎn)假作為福利。

But most states still have no local laws requiring paid family leave, and women who do not work at big companies, or full-time, tend to have few benefits. Indeed, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, said recently that the law has so many loopholes that “right now, only about 60 per cent of the US workforce has access to unpaid leave thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993”.

但多數(shù)州仍沒有制定州立法律提供帶薪家庭假，那些不在大公司工作或者不在大公司全職工作的女性幾乎沒有這些福利。的確，F(xiàn)acebook首席運營官雪莉•桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)最近表示，法律存在很多漏洞，以至于“目前，根據(jù)1993年《家庭和醫(yī)療假期法》(Family and Medical Leave Act)，只有大約60%的美國員工享有無薪假期。”

The net result, then, is a cruel bifurcation. Professional women who hold full-time jobs often are protected; poor women who work part-time (and really need the financial help) do not. This is shameful, particularly in a country where 40 per cent of women are the primary — or sole — breadwinner in their household.

于是，結(jié)果是殘酷的兩極分化。全職工作的職業(yè)女性往往得到保護;兼職工作(真正需要財務幫助)的貧窮女性卻沒有得到保護。這很丟臉，特別是在一個40%的女性是家里主要或唯一經(jīng)濟來源的國家。

Might this change? Perhaps. Hillary Clinton has long campaigned for the cause of maternity pay. But during his election campaign, Donald Trump stunned observers by endorsing the idea too: he called for a national plan to provide six weeks of paid family leave, as a form of unemployment insurance, for mothers and fathers.

這種情況可能改變嗎?或許吧。長期以來，希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)一直倡導帶薪產(chǎn)假。不過在競選期間，唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)也支持這種想法，這令觀察人士吃了一驚：他呼吁制定一個全國計劃，以失業(yè)保險的形式，為父母提供6周帶薪家庭假。

That reflects lobbying by his daughter Ivanka Trump, now a White House adviser. Ms Trump has been meeting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers to craft bipartisan legislation to introduce family support. She is also pushing for her father to double the tax credit for childcare in the US from $1,000 annually to $2,500, as part of the White House’s tax-reform plan. Indeed, she hopes that these improvements will be a key plank of her legacy.

這反映出他女兒、現(xiàn)任白宮顧問伊萬卡•特朗普(Ivanka Trump)的游說。伊萬卡一直在與共和黨和民主黨議員會面，以起草一項出臺家庭支持的兩黨立法。她還在推動她的父親提高美國育兒稅收抵免，從每年1000美元提高到2500美元，作為白宮稅收改革計劃的一部分。實際上，她希望這些改善措施將成為她的政治遺產(chǎn)的重要部分。

It is unclear if this will fly. Fiscal conservatives in Congress hate the idea of extending benefits, fearing this will raise debt levels and make the labour market less flexible. Democrats are angry that Ms Trump has not done more to promote women’s issues and want radical measures. Meanwhile, the whole issue of Congressional tax reform is so controversial that it may not be enacted swiftly — if at all.

目前還不清楚這些立法能不能得到通過。美國國會的財政保守人士不喜歡擴大福利的想法，擔心這將提高債務水平并讓勞動力市場的靈活性變差。讓民主黨人感到氣憤的是，伊萬卡沒有采取更多行動為女性問題代言，他們希望有大刀闊斧的措施。與此同時，國會稅收改革的整個議題如此有爭議，以至于它可能不會很快得到通過——如果最終能通過的話。

But, if nothing else, the Trump father and daughter intervention has — belatedly — put paid parental leave in the headlines. And campaigners hope that the more America talks about this challenge, the more pressure will build for change at the state level, or inside companies themselves. Heaven knows, it is long overdue — not just for professional women, but most immediately for the army of hard-working poor women who are sustaining so many American households but could never hope to own a briefcase and top-of-the-range, $370 executive breast pump, least of all after they give birth.

然而，撇開其他不談，特朗普父女的干預至少把帶薪產(chǎn)假問題推上新聞頭條?；顒尤耸肯Ｍ?，美國人越多討論這一挑戰(zhàn)，要求各州或者公司本身做出改變的壓力就越大。上天知道，此舉早就應該出臺，不僅是為職業(yè)女性，最緊迫的是為那些辛勤工作的貧困女性大軍，她們支撐著那么多美國家庭，但她們永遠都不可能擁有一個公文包和一套370美元的高管級高檔吸奶器，特別是在她們生了孩子之后。

The writer is the FT’s US managing editor

本文作者是英國《金融時報》美國執(zhí)行主編