美國高學歷女性人數首度超過男性

For the first time, American women have passed men in gaining advanced college degrees as well as bachelor's degrees, part of a trend that is helping redefine who goes off to work and who stays home with the kids.

美國女性獲取高學歷和學士學位的比例首度超過美國男性，這種趨勢在某種程度上將對“男主外女主內”的傳統分工重新進行界定。

Census figures released Tuesday highlight the latest education milestone for women, who began to exceed men in college enrollment in the early 1980s. The findings come amid record shares of women in the workplace and a steady decline in stay-at-home mothers.

週二發佈的調查數據突出顯示了女性教育的新的里程碑。自從20世紀80年代早期以來，女性在大學錄取率方面就開始領先男性。與此同時，跨入職場的女性比例達到了歷史新高，全職媽媽的人數也不斷下降。

The educational gains for women are giving them greater access to a wider range of jobs, contributing to a shift of traditional gender roles at home and work. Based on one demographer's estimate, the number of stay-at-home dads who are the primary caregivers for their children reached nearly 2 million last year, or one in 15 fathers. The official census tallywas 154,000, based on a narrower definition that excludes those working part-time or looking for jobs.

女性獲得教育使她們有更多就業機會，就業範圍也更大，這讓傳統的男女性別分工發生了改變。根據人口統計學家的估計，在家照顧小孩的全職爸爸人數在去年達到了近200萬，也就是15個父親當中有1個是全職爸爸。官方統計的數目是15.4萬，這一數據對居家爸爸的定義更狹窄，不包括那些有兼職工作和正在找工作的父親。

"The gaps we're seeing in bachelor's and advanced degrees mean that women will be better protected against the next recession," said Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint who is a visiting scholarat the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

密歇根大學福林特校區的經濟學教授馬克 佩瑞說：“從男性和女性在獲取學士學位和更高學位上的差距來看，女性在下一次經濟危機中將更安全。”佩瑞是一位保守派專家，現在在美國企業研究所做訪問學者。

"Men now might be the ones more likely to be staying home, doing the more traditional child rearing," he said.

他說：“男性現在或許是更可能待在家裏、承擔傳統育兒角色的那一方。”

Among adults 25 and older, 10.6 million U.S. women have master's degrees or higher, compared to 10.5 million men. Measured by shares, about 10.2 percent of women have advanced degrees compared to 10.9 percent of men — a gap steadily narrowing in recent years. Women still trailmen in professional subcategoriessuch as business, science and engineering.

在25歲及25歲以上的美國人羣中，1060萬女性有碩士或更高學位，而有此學歷的男性只有1050萬。從比例上來看，10.2%的女性有碩士以上（含碩士）的高學歷，而男性的這一比例爲10.9%，這一差距在近年來正不斷縮小。不過，女性在商業、科學和工程等專業領域依然落後於男性。

When it comes to finishing college, roughly 20.1 million women have bachelor's degrees, compared to nearly 18.7 million men — a gap of more than 1.4 million that has remained steady in recent years. Women first passed men in bachelor's degrees in 1996.

在大學畢業後，約2010萬女性獲得學士學位，而只有近1870萬男性獲得學士學位，相差140多萬，而且這一差距在近年來趨於穩定。1996年女性獲得學士學位的人數首次超過了男性。

Some researchers including Perry have dubbedthe current economic slump a "man-cession" because of the huge job losses in the male-dominated construction and manufacturing industries, which require less schooling. Measured by pay, women with full-time jobs now make 78.2 percent of what men earn, up from about 64 percent in 2000.

包括佩瑞在內的一些研究人員將眼下的經濟衰退戲稱爲“男性衰退”，因爲大量的失業發生在男性勞動力爲主的建築行業和製造業，這些行業所需的教育較少。從收入來看，擁有全職工作的女性現在的收入是男性收入的78.2%，相比2000年的64%提高了。