(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English. This is the Economic Report.
The goal appeared simple: require a woman to sit on the board of directors of all companies listed on India's National Stock Exchange. But after one year, many companies are still trying to fill the positions. This has raised the issue of how well women are represented in top leadership jobs.
Indian lawmakers passed the legislation last year. The rule is meant to ensure gender diversity and bring attention to the issue of women in corporate leadership. The rule required that women be named to all corporate boards by April 1.
About 150 companies out of 1,475 listed on the stock market failed to name a woman to their boards by that date. And nearly half the companies that did meet the requirement appointed a female relative of a current board member.
Among those companies was Reliance Industries. It named the Chairman's wife, Nita Ambani, to the board.
Pranava Haldea of the market research group, PRIME Database in New Delhi questions the effectiveness of the requirement.
He says his organization thinks that the female relatives will share the same ideas and opinions as their family member on the board. He says that defeats the purpose of diversity.
Many companies argued there was a shortage of skilled female workers able to fill the positions. Uday Chawla is head of a professional search company, Transearch India. It helped some companies look for candidates. He says the difficulty was to find women who had already served on boards.
He said more professional companies want women on the board who can add value to the board instead of just meet a requirement. He says these companies demand competency and experience. Mr. Chawla said there are very few women who have the experience.
Others said companies simply did not take the legislation seriously and failed to look carefully. Yet, the inability of corporate India to find women to sit on boards has brought attention to the low level of women's participation in top management positions.
Catalyst is a non-profit organization that works to build inclusive workplaces. The group released a study that said almost 50 percent of women in corporate India leave such work between the lowest and middle professional level. In the rest of Asia, 29 percent of women do.
Shachi Irde is the director of Catalyst India, WRC. She says one of the reasons women leave is that women in India are mainly responsible for family care. She says companies need to put in place policies to keep more women on the job.
"If you really look and ensure that the women are recognized, treated fairly, then there is a lot more of women that you can see in your organization rather than them dropping off. The challenge definitely comes when organizations don't have inclusive policies and she is pulled between both her home responsibilities and her office responsibilities."
Ms. Irde says more women could be placed on boards if companies do not only consider women with experience as board members.
Pranav Haldea says Indian companies need to recognize that more women in the workplace and in top management add value to a company.
He says he does not believe more laws are the answer. He said it is more of an effort to change beliefs in the corporate world.
Corporate boards in India have among the lowest percentages of women members. Women are represented most on corporate boards in Norway, Finland and France which have government requirements for female membership.
And that's the Economic Report from VOA Learning English.
I'm Mario Ritter.
词汇解释
1.legislation n. 立法；法律
The new government dismantled their predecessors' legislation.
新政府废除了前任政府的立法。
2.inclusive a.包括的，包罗广泛的； 包括…的； 一切开支包括在内的； （语言使用上）不分男女的
The academy is far more inclusive now than it used to be.
该学院如今比过去更为兼收并蓄。
3.competency n. 能力（等于competence）；资格
Strong competency of organized, management and good communication and co - ordination skill.
具备很强的组织、管理能力、沟通和协调能力。
内容解析
1.The rule is meant to ensure gender diversity and bring attention to the issue of women in corporate leadership.
bring attention to 注意到
Today, it is known as National Youth Day — a day on which South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.
今天，这个日子被视为国家青年节——一个南非人尊重年轻人，关注他们需要的日子。
The incident brought attention to a real and growing threat to air safety.
这个事件让人们关注到了日益增长而又真实存在的航空安全威胁。
2.If you really look and ensure that the women are recognized, treated fairly, then there is a lot more of women that you can see in your organization rather than them dropping off.
drop off 减少；让……下车；睡着
Two years later, earnings from the stocks had dropped off by nearly 50%.
2年后，股票收益已下降了近50％。
I must have dropped off to sleep.
我一定是睡着了。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
目的似乎很简单：要求所有在印度国家证券交易所上市的公司其董事会必须有一名女性。但在一年后，很多公司仍在努力填补这一空位，这就引发了一个问题，那就是女性担任高级领导职位有多好。
印度议员们去年通过这项法规，其目的是确保性别多样化，并让人们重视女性在公司领导地位的问题。该法规定所有公司董事会必须在4月1日之前任命女性董事。
在证券交易所上市的1475家公司中，约有150家未能如期任命女性董事。达标公司中有近一半的公司任命了现任董事成员的女性亲属。
其中就有信实工业，这家公司任命董事会主席之妻妮塔·安巴尼进入董事会。
市场研究组织新德里首席数据公司的Pranava Haldea质疑这一要求的作用。
他说他的组织认为女性亲属和董事会里的家庭成员有着同样的观点和见解，他说这就有损多样化的目的。
很多公司辩称缺少能填补这些职位的有经验女性员工，乌代·乔拉是猎头公司Transearch India的负责人，该公司帮助一些公司寻找员工。他说难度在于寻找已经在董事会工作过的女性。
他说更专业的公司希望董事会的女性能对董事会发挥价值，而不是只是满足需求而已。他说这些公司要求能力和经验，乔拉说很少有女性有这样的资历。
也有人说这些公司没有把法规当回事，未能认真地寻找。不过，印度企业界未能找到女性进入董事会这件事引发人们对低水平女性担任高级管理职位的关注。
Catalyst是一家致力于帮助建设包容性工作场所的非盈利组织，该组织发布的报告称印度企业界近50%的女性离开了中、低职业水平的工作，而在亚洲其他国家，有29%的女性这么做。
Shachi Irde是Catalyst India WRC的负责人，她说妇女辞职的一个原因是，印度女性主要负责照顾家庭，她说公司需要实施一些让更多女性继续工作的政策。
“如果真的想确保女性得到认可和公平对待，那么你就能看到你公司里会有很多女性，而不是在减少。而当公司没有包容性的政策时，女性就在家庭责任和工作职责之间左右为难，问题也就来了。”
Irde说，如果公司不只是考虑有经验的女性作为董事会成员时，就会有更多的女性进入董事会。
Pranav Haldea说，印度公司需要认识到，工作场所和高级管理层有更多女性会给公司带来价值。
他说他认为解决办法并非是出台更多法律，他说需要做更多努力来改变企业界的观念。
印度公司董事会的女性比例全球最低，董事会女性比例最高的国家是挪威、芬兰和法国，这些国家的政府有女性成员方面的规定。
这就是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
我是马里奥·利特。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
