Why do so many working moms' careers stall out when they hit middle management? Disagreement over the answer has often sparked hot debate。

为什么很多上班妈妈当上中层管理人员后其职业生涯就陷入停滞?对这个问题的不同回答往往引发激烈的争论。

There are actually many right answers, and most of them emerged in new research and discussion last week at The Wall Street Journal conference on Women in the Economy. Working on the premise that engaging women more fully in the workforce worldwide would spark leaps in innovation and productivity, McKinsey & Co. presented a study showing that women's share of corporate jobs is 53% at the entry level, but falls to 14% at the executive-committee level. Here is a sampling of the reasons that emerged in the study, and in conference discussions: Everett Collection。

女性在中层管理层上面临的障碍是什么?事实上，这个问题有很多正确答案。上周《华尔街日报》主办的“商界女性”(Women in the Economy)论坛中，新的研究和与会嘉宾的探讨也给出了其中很多答案。麦肯锡公司(McKinsey & Co。)发布了一项研究，以全世界女性更充分地参与到工作中来能够促进创新和生产力的飞跃为前提，研究表明，在入门级公司职位里，女性占据的比例为53%;但到了执行委员会这样的高层职位里，这一比例就迅速降到了14%。以下列举了上述研究和会议讨论中出现的部分解释：

Discouraging odds. Although 83% of mid-level women have a strong desire to move up to a higher level in their companies, their chances of landing a senior executive job are 60% those of men, Vikram Malhotra, McKinsey's chairman of the Americas, told about 170 attendees. In a statement that was repeated throughout the conference, Malhotra said 'middle-management women get promoted on performance, while middle-management men get promoted on potential.' That means that some women may have to work even harder than their male counterparts to get promoted。

晋升机会不大。麦肯锡美洲区主席马尔霍特拉(Vikram Malhotra)对大约170名与会者说，虽然83%的中层职业女性都有进入本公司更高层的强烈愿望，但她们获得高级管理职位的机会只有男性的60%。马尔霍特拉在会议上反复强调，中层职业女性因为业绩优秀获得提拔，而同处中层的男性则因潜能获得提拔。这意味着一些女性可能要比男性更加努力才能获得晋升机会。

Lifestyle preferences. Many mother and fathers say they wouldn't take any promotion that hurt their work-life balance, Malhotra says, but women feel a greater need after having kids to limit travel, McKinsey found. And for women at mid-career who have had one or two children, added Sallie Krawcheck, president, global wealth and investment management at Bank of America, in a conference interview, 'it's socially acceptable to go home.'

生活方式的选择。马尔霍特拉说，很多父母都表示，他们不会接受会损害工作与生活平衡的晋升。但麦肯锡的研究发现，有了孩子之后，女性往往感到更有必要控制出差的次数。美国银行(Bank of America)全球财富与投资管理部总裁克劳切特(Sallie Krawcheck)在会议上接受采访时补充说，对于那些有了一到两个孩子的中层职业女性来说，“回家”是能够得到社会认可的行为。

The glass ceiling. As one woman in the McKinsey study said, 'there are no females in upper management in my company.' Without role models, sponsors and mentors in top management, it is hard for women to imagine themselves in those jobs. One perpetuating factor is managers' fear that 'if we promote a woman and she goes out on leave, we won't make our numbers. It's too risky,' Malhotra says。

玻璃天花板。麦肯锡的研究中有一位女性这样说：我供职的公司中没有女性担任高层管理人员。没有来自高层的榜样、支持者和导师，女性很难想象自己能走入高层。马尔霍特拉说，一个长期存在的因素是老板担心如果提拔一位女性，但她外出休假，我们人手不够怎么办?这样风险太大了。

Lower pay. Nancy Carter, senior vice president, research, for Catalyst, said her group's study of 5,000 employees worldwide found 'women were placed in lower positions with lower pay in their first jobs' compared with men, 'and the gap increased over time.'

收入较低。Catalyst的公司研究部高级副总裁卡特(Nancy Carter)说她的部门对全球5,000名员工的研究发现，女性的第一份工作往往级别较低，收入也较低，随着时间的流逝，差距越来越大。

Forbidding child-care costs. If child care eats up your paycheck, working 'isn't worthwhile, unless you absolutely love your job and are willing to take a financial hit for the pleasure of working,' Saadia Zahidi, a director and specialist on women's issues at the World Economic Forum, told the group。

请人照顾孩子的成本太高。世界经济论坛妇女问题专家扎西迪(Saadia Zahidi)说，如果照顾孩子的成本吞噬了你大部分收入，工作就变得不值得，除非你非常热爱自己的工作，愿为工作乐趣承担财务上的冲击。

Contentment - really. McKinsey found 'women often stay put in jobs if they derive a sense of meaning from the work. More than men, women prize the opportunity to pour their energies into making a difference,' the study says. 'Women don't want to trade that joy for what they fear will be energy-draining meetings and corporate politics' at higher levels of management。

知足。麦肯锡研究发现，如果能发现工作的意义，妇女往往愿意留在原工作岗位。研究表明，比起男性，女性更看重能注入她们精力做出改变的机会。女性不愿意放弃这样的乐趣去换取高层管理职位，她们担心身处高层要面对大量劳神费力的会议和公司政治。

Readers, have any of these factors affected your career decisions? Are there other factors that are left out? Which do you think have the most powerful effect on working parents? Are the career influences changing for women?

亲爱的读者，上述因素是否影响过你的职业决定?是否遗漏了其它一些因素?你认为对于上班的父母来说，哪一个因素影响最大?对于女性来说，影响职业的因素是否有变化?