每日外刊 | 英语阅读-认为女性更擅长做家务的说法纯属无稽之谈|adj|women|家务|翻译|贺卡

背景知识

一直以来，人们认为多任务处理（multitasking）是女性的专长。一个女人，尤其是有孩子的女人，通常会兼顾工作和打理家务，而家务本身又是多种任务的杂乱组合——准备小孩的午餐、打扫房间、安排预约、组织社交活动等等。2019年8月发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》（ PLOS One）上的一项新研究表明，女性实际上并不比男性更擅长多任务处理。这项研究测试了女性是否更善于在不同任务之间切换，是否更能同时执行多个任务。结果显示，女性的大脑在这两方面的效率并不比男性高。传统观点总是认为，女性在生理上就具有高效处理多任务的能力。在相信“多任务处理能力男女有别”的人里，80%认为女性执行多个任务更好，但这并没有实际证据支持。

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It’s a total myth that women are better at keeping track of household chores

认为女性更擅长做家务的说法纯属无稽之谈

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While recently browsing the greetings card aisle of my local drugstore, I discovered a genre of less than flattering Father’s Day cards. “Happy Father’s Day to a husband who has it all – but just doesn’t know where it is,” trumpeted one. “To the boss of our family,” read another. “Whoops, sorry. Mother’s Day was last month. Happy Father’s Day, anyway.”

最近，当我在当地药店的贺卡货架上浏览贺卡时，我发现了一种不那么讨人喜欢的父亲节贺卡。“祝拥有一切的丈夫父亲节快乐——只是不知道拥有的都在哪里。”其中一张吹嘘道。“献给我们的老大，”另一条写道。“哎呀，对不起。母亲节是在上个月。总之，祝您父亲节快乐。”

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The Bumbling Dad to whom these cards refer is the flipside of the iconic Supermum. While Supermum juggles a briefcase, four dinner plates and a crying child, Bumbling Dad tends to be a single-tasking kind of guy. I’ll admit that I chuckled as I read these cards, tickled by the insinuation that women are more capable on the domestic front than their male counterparts. But if we as a society are serious about gender equality, it’s time to retire this caricature.

这些卡片所指的“笨手笨脚的爸爸”是“超级妈妈”的另一面。当“超级妈妈”摆弄着公文包、四个餐盘和一个哭闹的孩子时，“笨手笨脚的爸爸”往往倾向于做单一的工作。我承认，当我读到这些卡片时，我咯咯地笑了起来，因为这些暗示女性在家务方面比男性更有能力的说法让我觉得好笑。但如果我们作为一个社会去认真对待性别平等，是时候让这种讽刺漫画（形象）消失了。

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As an academic, I’ve interviewed more than 70 different-sex couples to learn about how they divide the “mental work” involved in running a household and raising children. This includes tasks like planning meals, coordinating family members’ schedules and remembering to organise extracurricular activities for the kids. I found that the responsibility for this mental work falls more heavily on women’s shoulders, even among couples who share the “physical work” of cooking, cleaning and shopping. Women are especially likely to anticipate household needs and notice potential problems before they become actual problems.

作为一名学者，我采访了70多对不同性别的夫妇，以了解他们在经营家庭和抚养孩子时是如何分配“脑力劳动”的。这包括计划饮食、协调家庭成员的日程安排以及记得为孩子组织课外活动。我发现，这种脑力工作的责任更多地落在女性的肩上，甚至在分担做饭、清洁和购物等“体力劳动”的夫妇中也是如此。女性尤其有可能预见到家庭需求，在潜在问题变成实际问题之前就注意到它们。

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