Europe is not a gender-equality heaven.
欧洲并不是男女平等的天堂。
In particular, the corporate workplace will never be completely family-friendly until women are part of senior management decisions,
企业的职场尤其如此，如果女性不参与高层决策，企业职场将永远不会彻底地为家庭着想，
and Europe's top corporate-governance positions remain overwhelmingly male.
但是绝大多数的欧洲顶级企业管理职位仍然是被男性所占据。
Indeed, women hold only 14 percent of positions on Europe corporate boards.
实际上，在欧企董事会中，女性董事所占比例仅为14％。
The Europe Union is now considering legislation to compel corporate boards to maintain a certain proportion of women — up to 60 percent.
现在，欧盟正在考虑建立法律来强制企业董事会维持一定的女性比例，这一比例会高达60％。
This proposed mandate was born of frustration.
提议这样的法令实则是出于沮丧之举。
Last year, Europe Commission Vice President Viviane Reding issued a call to voluntary action.
去年，欧委会副主席维维亚娜·雷丁发布了一项自愿采取行动的号召。
Reding invited corporations to sign up for gender balance goal of 40 percent female board membership.
雷丁邀请各家企业报名参加性别平衡目标--董事会女性成员比例达到40％。
But her appeal was considered a failure: only 24 companies took it up.
但是，她的呼吁被认为是失败之举：仅有24家公司接受了她的号召。
Do we need quotas to ensure that women can continue to climb the corporate ladder fairly as they balance work and family?
在女性平衡工作和家庭的同时，我们还需要采用定额的方式来确保她们持续地、公平地攀爬职场的阶梯么？
"Personally, I don't like quotas," Reding said recently. "But I like what the quotas do."
最近，雷丁说到：“就个人而言，我不喜欢定额。但是，我喜欢定额达能办到的事情。”
Quotas get action: they "open the way to equality and they break through the glass ceiling," according to Reding,
定额让人们采取行动，按照雷丁的说法，它们“开辟了平等之路，突破了玻璃天花板”。
a result seen in France and other countries with legally binding provisions on placing women in top business positions.
法国和其他的一些国家制定了具有法律约束力条款让女性进入企业高级职位，这些国家已经看到了上面提到的结果。
I understand Reding's reluctance — and her frustration.
我理解雷丁的勉强和她的沮丧。
I don't like quotas either; they run counter to my belief in meritocracy, government by the capable.
我也不喜欢各种定额，它们其与我精英管理的理念背道而驰。
But, when one considers the obstacles to achieving the meritocratic ideal,
但是，在人们考虑到实现完美的精英管理的制度会遇到诸多障碍时，
it does look as if a fairer world must be temporarily ordered.
就必须暂时通过法令来获得一个更加公平的世界，确实看起来是这样的。
After all, four decades of evidence has now shown that
要知道，四十年的证据现在已经表明：
corporations in Europe as well as the US are evading the meritocratic hiring and promotion of women to top position
欧洲和美国的企业一直在避开将女性招聘为精英或晋升到高层，
no matter how much "soft pressure" is put upon them.
不管受到多大“软压力”。
When women do break through to the summit of corporate power — as, for example, Sheryl Sandberg recently did at Facebook
当女性确实有所突破，站到了企业权利的制高点--比方说，正如脸谱公司的谢丽尔·桑德博格最近所做到的，
they attract massive attention precisely because they remain the exception to the rule.
这时她们会引起非常大的关注，原因恰恰就是她们是不合规则的例外。
If appropriate pubic policies were in place to help all women---whether CEOs or their children's caregivers--and all families,
如果有合适的公共政策可以帮助所有的女性(不管是首席执行官们，还是她们孩子的看护人们)和所有的家庭，
Sandberg would be no more newsworthy than any other highly capable person living in a more just society.
桑德博格就会和其他生活在公平社会那些有能力的人一样，不具有报导价值了。