Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.
这里是《科学美国人》的 60 秒科学，我是凯伦·霍普金。
Think of a top executive at a powerhouse company. You’re no doubt imagining someone who’s confident and clever, decisive and determined. And, though it pains me to say it, you’re probably picturing a man. The sad thing is, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.
想想一家实力雄厚的公司高管。毫无疑问，你想象的是一个自信、聪明、果断和坚定的人。虽然说起来让我很痛苦，但你正在想象的可能是一个男人。更可悲的是，事实大致如此。
Asher Lawson: Around only 7 percent of S&P 500 CEOs are women, despite women making up 50 percent of the population.
尽管女性占总人口的 50%，但标普500指数企业的首席执行官中，只有大约 7% 是女性。
Hopkin: That’s Asher Lawson, a graduate student at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He says that one way to even the playing field might be to change the way we think about…and talk about…leadership. And he and his colleagues have found that organizations are more likely to describe women using words that are typically associated with achievement if they have female CEOs. Their findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
亚瑟·劳森，杜克大学富卡商学院的研究生。他说，实现公平竞争的一种方式，可能是改变我们思考和谈论领导力的方式。他和他的同事发现，如果企业中有女性 CEO，他们更有可能使用通常与成就相关的词语来描述女性。他们的发现发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。
Lawson: Gender inequality has been deemed the “greatest human rights challenge of our time” by the United Nations. In our research we’re interested in specifically some of the factors that perpetuate these gender inequities…as well as the downstream consequences of those gender stereotypes.
性别不平等被联合国视为“我们这个时代最大的人权挑战”。在我们的研究中，我们特别感兴趣的是使这些性别不平等现象长期存在的一些因素……以及这些性别刻板印象引发的后果。
Hopkin: To get at the roots of these stereotypes, Lawson and his team took a closer look at corporate speak — and the words businesses use when referring to women.
为了找出这些刻板印象的根源，劳森和他的团队仔细研究了企业演讲——以及企业在提及女性时使用的词汇。
Lawson: So we’re really interested in language because it gives us this deep insight into how people are thinking about women in a way that doesn’t rely on them reporting it themselves.
我们对语言真的很感兴趣，因为语言让我们深入了解企业是如何看待女性的，而不是依赖于企业的自我报告。
Hopkin: Now, coming straight out and asking companies how they feel about females can lead to some fanciful forecasting.
如果直截了当地询问公司对女性的看法，可能会引起一些奇特的预测。
Lawson: So if you ask organizations whether they believe in gender equity or whether they’re interested in fairness, because of social desirability concerns, they’ll nearly always say yes.
而如果你问企业他们是否相信性别平等，或者他们是否对公平感兴趣，出于社会期望的考虑，他们几乎都会说是。
Hopkin: To find out if businesses talk the talk AND walk the walk, the researchers parsed the shareholder reports and investor documents of S&P 500 companies. Using natural language processing techniques, they analyzed some 43,000 files…containing more than 1.2 billion words…and they looked for associations between words that signify women…like she and her…and words typically associated with leadership…like assertive or ambitious or effective.
为了印证企业是否说到做到，研究人员分析了标普500指数企业的股东报告和投资者文件。使用自然语言处理技术，他们分析了大约 43,000 个文件……包含超过 12 亿个单词……他们先是查找表示女性的单词……例如“she”和“her”……然后匹配通常与领导力相关的单词……例如自信、雄心勃勃或高效。
Lawson: One way to think of it is if you had an autocomplete system like you use on your phone and you said “she is…” it would be like, how likely is it that the next word is powerful?
大概是这样一种思路，如果你手机上有自动补全系统，输入“她是……”，下一个单词有多大的可能是“高效”?
Hopkin: Once they assessed this association…
一旦他们评估了这种关联……
Lawson: We then asked: how do these associations change when you hire women as leaders? And we saw the same pattern across all of this data: that hiring women as senior leaders led to an increased association with those leadership-congruent traits.
然后我们想：当聘请女性担任领导者后，这些关联会发生怎样的变化?我们在所有这些数据中看到了相同的模式：雇用女性担任高级领导，会导致与这些领导一致特征的关联增加。
Hopkin: And it wasn’t that the companies were extolling the virtues of their own specific staff.
这并不是说这些公司在赞扬自己某个特定员工的优点。
Lawson: So it’s not just discussion of those new CEOs and board members. It actually generalizes to discussion of women more broadly. So we were heartened to see this result.
它不仅仅是对新首席执行官和董事会成员的讨论，它实际上可以更广泛地理解为讨论女性。所以我们很高兴看到这个结果。
Hopkin: At the same time, they wondered whether there might be any backlash…in other words, when a woman is seen as more competent, is she then considered to be less compassionate and considerate.
与此同时，他们想知道是否会有任何反作用。……换句话说，当一个女人被认为更有能力时，她是否会被认为缺乏同情心、不那么体贴。
Lawson: Happily, we saw that there was no decreased association with being caring and these kinds of likable traits.
令人高兴的是，我们发现与关怀和这些可爱特质的关联并没有减少。
Hopkin: Even better, the data suggests that the organizations that saw the biggest boost in female-linked leadership language are more likely to hire even more women.
更重要的是，数据表明，女性关联领导词更多的企业，更有可能雇用更多的女性。
Lawson: So this highlights the opportunity for a virtuous cycle where the effect can snowball. Appointing women leads women to be more closely associated with these traits that are seen as necessary to be leaders…and this can actually precipitate hiring more women in the future. So it’s a very exciting process to witness.
这是一个良性循环，影响会像滚雪球一样越来越大。任命女性会让女性与这些被视为成为领导者所必需的特质更紧密地联系在一起……这实际上可能会促使未来雇佣更多的女性。所以这是一个非常令人兴奋的过程。
Hopkin: And something the head honcho will surely write about in her next annual report.
还有，老板肯定会在她的下一份年度报告中用到这些词。
For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.
以上是《科学美国人》的 60 秒科学，凯伦·霍普金报道。
Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.
Think of a top executive at a powerhouse company. You’re no doubt imagining someone who’s confident and clever, decisive and determined. And, though it pains me to say it, you’re probably picturing a man. The sad thing is, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.
Asher Lawson: Around only 7 percent of S&P 500 CEOs are women, despite women making up 50 percent of the population.
Hopkin: That’s Asher Lawson, a graduate student at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He says that one way to even the playing field might be to change the way we think about…and talk about…leadership. And he and his colleagues have found that organizations are more likely to describe women using words that are typically associated with achievement if they have female CEOs. Their findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lawson: Gender inequality has been deemed the “greatest human rights challenge of our time” by the United Nations. In our research we’re interested in specifically some of the factors that perpetuate these gender inequities…as well as the downstream consequences of those gender stereotypes.
Hopkin: To get at the roots of these stereotypes, Lawson and his team took a closer look at corporate speak — and the words businesses use when referring to women.
Lawson: So we’re really interested in language because it gives us this deep insight into how people are thinking about women in a way that doesn’t rely on them reporting it themselves.
Hopkin: Now, coming straight out and asking companies how they feel about females can lead to some fanciful forecasting.
Lawson: So if you ask organizations whether they believe in gender equity or whether they’re interested in fairness, because of social desirability concerns, they’ll nearly always say yes.
Hopkin: To find out if businesses talk the talk AND walk the walk, the researchers parsed the shareholder reports and investor documents of S&P 500 companies. Using natural language processing techniques, they analyzed some 43,000 files…containing more than 1.2 billion words…and they looked for associations between words that signify women…like she and her…and words typically associated with leadership…like assertive or ambitious or effective.
Lawson: One way to think of it is if you had an autocomplete system like you use on your phone and you said “she is…” it would be like, how likely is it that the next word is powerful?
Hopkin: Once they assessed this association…
Lawson: We then asked: how do these associations change when you hire women as leaders? And we saw the same pattern across all of this data: that hiring women as senior leaders led to an increased association with those leadership-congruent traits.
Hopkin: And it wasn’t that the companies were extolling the virtues of their own specific staff.
Lawson: So it’s not just discussion of those new CEOs and board members. It actually generalizes to discussion of women more broadly. So we were heartened to see this result.
Hopkin: At the same time, they wondered whether there might be any backlash…in other words, when a woman is seen as more competent, is she then considered to be less compassionate and considerate.
Lawson: Happily, we saw that there was no decreased association with being caring and these kinds of likable traits.
Hopkin: Even better, the data suggests that the organizations that saw the biggest boost in female-linked leadership language are more likely to hire even more women.
Lawson: So this highlights the opportunity for a virtuous cycle where the effect can snowball. Appointing women leads women to be more closely associated with these traits that are seen as necessary to be leaders…and this can actually precipitate hiring more women in the future. So it’s a very exciting process to witness.
Hopkin: And something the head honcho will surely write about in her next annual report.
For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.
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