提起“性别平等”，我们首先想到的往往是女性应当占据与男性相同的地位，应当拥有“充分而平等地参加经济、社会、。但女性地位的提升不应以男性地位的降低为代价，性别平等是一种机会的平等，而不是一种为某种正义感所驱使的平等。女性重要，男性也重要。对任何社会来说，矫枉过正带来的后果都将是灾难性的。，探讨了近年来男孩在美国家庭中逐渐“失宠”的多个可能原因。最后，以一句经典标语作结——“生男生女都一样”。
“不重生男重生女”可能将在美国出现？
作者：Claire Cain Miller
译者：张力文
校对：刘 璠
策划：唐 萧
本文选自 The New York Times | 取经号原创翻译
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Americans Might No Longer Prefer Sons Over Daughters
“不重生男重生女”可能将在美国出现？
Around the world, parents have typically preferred to have sons more than daughters, and American parents have been no different. But there are signs that’s changing. It may be because there’s less bias against girls, and possibly more bias against boys.
一般来说，全世界的父母都更想生儿子，美国的父母也不例外。但有迹象表明这一现象正在发生改变。这可能是由于对女孩的偏见正在减少，而对男孩的偏见却极有可能在增加。
typically /ˈtɪp.ɪ.kəl.i/ adv. used when you are giving an average or usual example of a particular thing一般地；通常
Gallup surveyed Americans 10 times from 1941 to 2011, and their answers remained virtually unchanged: If they could have one child, 40 percent would prefer a boy and 28 percent a girl (the rest showed no preference).
从1941年到2011年之间，盖洛普咨询公司共对美国人进行了10次调研。在这些调研中，受访者的回答基本保持不变：如果只能有一个孩子的话，40%的人希望是男孩，28%的人想要女孩（其余受访者则没有显示出偏好）。
A new study, however, measured that preference in a different way. While having a daughter versus a son used to make American parents more likely to keep having children, theoretically to try for a son, now the opposite is true: Having a daughter makes it less likely that they keep having children. Some data from adoptions and fertility procedures that allow parents to choose the sex of their baby also shows a preference, to varying degrees, for girls.
然而，一项新的研究从新的角度对这种偏好进行了测量。尽管生女儿曾一度提高了美国父母继续生育的可能性（理论上是为了生一个男孩），但现在的情况却相反——生女儿使得美国父母继续生孩子的可能性降低了。收养和生育给了人们选择自己孩子性别的可能，而与此相关的一些数据都在不同程度上显示出了人们对女孩的偏好。
First- and second-generation American immigrants, the new study found, continue to show a preference for sons. They are more likely to keep having babies after having a daughter — particularly if they are from countries with less gender equity and lower female labor force participation.
该研究发现，美国一代和二代移民仍旧更愿意生儿子，更有可能在生了女孩之后继续生育。如果他们是来自于性别相对不平等、女性工作参与度较低的国家的话，这种现象则更为明显。
Across cultures, the bias against daughters has been closely tied to women’s second-class status. Sons have been more likely to be successful, carry on the family name and earn money to support family members in old age.
长久以来，在很多文化里，这种对女儿的偏见与女性的次等地位紧密相关。人们一直认为儿子更容易成功，他们能延续家族香火并挣钱赡养老人。
But the status of women in the United States has undergone a revolution in the last four decades. Women still face deep inequality and sexism, but they are now more likely to pursue rewarding careers and have a greater role in family decision-making. They are also more likely to be college graduates than men.
但在过去的四十年里，美国女性的地位发生了革命性的变化。尽管女性仍然面临着极其严重的不平等对待和性别歧视，但如今女性从事高薪职业并在家庭决策中扮演重要角色的可能性已大大增加。相比男性，女性还更有可能获得学士学位。
pursue /pərsu/ v. to have as one’s occupation从事（某项职业）
Men without college degrees are struggling in the modern job market, which rewards brains more than brawn. And teenage boys and men are almost entirely the bad actors in certain crises the nation is facing, like mass shootings and sexual harassment. The diminishing preference for sons could indicate, among some parents, a growing bias against boys.
当下的就业市场更看中脑力劳动而非体力劳动，没有大学学历的男性往往处境艰难。此外，在美国所面临的诸如大规模枪击案和性骚扰事件的危机中，十几岁的男孩和成年的男性几乎完全扮演了负面角色。人们不再那么偏爱男孩，一些父母对男孩的偏见正在增强。
brawn/brɔn/ n. physical strength 体力
“It should be celebrated that parents want to raise confident young women,” said Michael Thompson, a psychologist who studies the development of boys. “But there is now a subtle fear of boys and the trouble they might bring. Parents think: ‘My son might have A.D.H.D., might not fit in as well in school, there might not be jobs for him. Life is going to be a little tougher for him as a boy.’”
研究男孩成长的心理学家迈克尔·汤普森说道：“父母们想抚养自信的年轻女性，这一点值得庆贺。”但他同时也指出：“现在人们开始对男孩产生些许担忧，担心他们可能会惹麻烦。父母们认为：‘我的儿子可能会有多动症（A.D.H.D.），可能会在学校表现不好，可能会找不到工作。作为男孩子，生活对他来说将会有点难’。”
Economists have measured preference for sons in several ways. A pathbreaking study by Enrico Moretti and Gordon Dahl in 2004, using census data about fertility from 1960 to 1980, found that parents who had a daughter were more likely to have another child than parents who had a son. The effect was more pronounced as parents had additional daughters.
经济学家从多个角度测量了人们对于儿子的偏爱。2004年，恩里科·莫雷蒂和高登·道尔进行了一项开创性研究。利用1960至1980年之间人口普查的数据，莫雷蒂和道尔对该时间段内的出生率进行了分析。他们发现，相较于生了儿子的夫妇们来说，生了女儿的夫妇们有更大的几率会再生一个孩子。而对于已经有了一个女儿的夫妇们来说，这一结论则更为明显。
The new study, a working paper published in September, used the same technique, but with fertility data from 2008 to 2013. “We were surprised to find that it was not true anymore that having a girl encouraged additional births,” said Francine Blau, an economist at Cornell and one of the paper’s authors. “There could be a daughter preference.”
一项在九月新近发表的研究使用了同样的方法，但分析的是2008年到2014年之间的出生率。“我们惊奇地发现，生女儿不再意味着促进继续生育，” 该论文的作者之一康奈尔大学的经济学家佛兰希·布劳说道：“人们可能开始偏爱女孩了。”
Ms. Blau and her colleagues said the new data shows that other factors now outweigh the preference for sons. That could indicate a preference for daughters, or it could be a combination of things.
布劳和她的同事表示，这些新的数据表明，一些新的因素使得天平从生男孩的一端偏向了生女孩的一端，天平最后可能会向生女孩的一端倾斜，也可能最终会不偏不倚。
In general, Americans — especially men — have been more likely to say they want a child of their own gender. In the 2011 Gallup survey, 31 percent of women wanted a boy and 33 percent a girl, while 49 percent of men wanted a boy and 22 percent a girl.
总体而言，美国人，尤其是美国男人一直都更希望孩子与自己的性别相同。盖洛普在2011年的研究显示，31%的女性想生男孩，33%的女性想生女孩。而对于男性来说，49%的男性希望有一个儿子，22%的男性希望有一个女儿。
Part of the reason is parents want to share interests and hobbies with a child, research shows, and think this will be based on gender. Now that girls play sports and do other things that used to be considered masculine, fathers might feel more of an affinity for them. Stereotypes about what boys spend their time doing have not changed as much.
研究显示，这一方面源于父母们希望能与孩子拥有相同的兴趣爱好，并认为兴趣爱好是以性别为基础的。而如今，女孩们也可以开展体育运动，并做一些在过去被认为是带有男性特质的事，因此父亲们对她们的喜爱也可能会加深。而人们心中对于男孩们该做什么不该做什么的认知却没有太大变化。
As women have gained more decision-making power in marriages, and become more likely to be single mothers, they might be exercising their daughter preference more often than they used to. That could explain the difference between the Gallup survey responses and the results from the new research. (Gallup said it was planning another survey on this question this year.)
鉴于女性在婚姻中获得了更多的决定权以及单身妈妈数量的增加，她们可能会比以前要更偏爱女儿。这就解释了盖洛普研究与最新的研究会产生不同的结果。（盖洛普表示他们正计划在今年对此问题开展另一项研究。）
“It could be men are just as biased as they always were, but have less of a say in having another kid,” said Mr. Dahl, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego.
加州大学圣地亚哥分校的经济学教授道尔博士表示：“男性对新生儿性别的偏见可能还和以前一样，但在生第二个孩子的问题上，他们不像之前那么有发言权了。
There could be explanations other than a preference for daughters. For example, people might stop having children after having daughters because daughters cost more than they used to since they are more likely to go to college, researchers said, though it’s unclear if this has affected people’s family planning decisions.
除了对女孩的偏爱之外，这种趋势的出现可能还有其他原因。例如，研究者表示，虽然现在尚不能确定新生儿性别是否会影响人们对于家庭的规划，但人们可能会在生了女儿之后选择不再继续生育，是因为现在抚养一个女孩会比过去花费更多的钱，因为她们更有可能进入大学 。
The new paper found an indication that some son preference remains. Unmarried fathers are less likely to marry pregnant mothers if an ultrasound shows that the baby is a girl, and parents of daughters are more likely to divorce. This effect was much smaller in the new paper, which used data from 2008 to 2013, than in the earlier paper, using data about family structure from 1960 to 2000, but it was still there.
这篇新近发表的论文发现了一个人们依旧偏爱儿子的证据 。在未婚先孕的情况下，如果超声波检查显示胎儿是个女孩，男性往往不太愿意和孩子的母亲结婚， 而且女孩子的父母更容易离婚。该文使用的是2008至2013年之间的数据，尽管与早前的研究相比（使用了1960至2000年之间的家庭结构数据）这一趋势减弱了很多，但依然存在。
Men, particularly white men, still have many advantages in American society — whether being paid more or being disproportionately represented in government and business. But over all, they are falling behind in school and work.
男性，尤其是白人男性，仍旧在美国社会中占据了诸多优势：他们能获得更高的报酬，并在政府和商业活动中占据了压倒性的席位。但总体来看，他们在学校和工作中正在逐渐失去优势。
Early elementary school has become more academic — more work sheets and less play — and teachers report that boys, as a whole, have more trouble sitting still, behaving and earning high grades. In the labor market, the jobs that have consistently grown in recent decades require social skills, like cooperation and empathy. Jobs that have tended to shrink are male-dominated physical ones, like machine operators.
小学正变得越来越学术化——作业变多、玩耍时间变少。老师们表示，整体来看，男孩子们往往更难坐得住，在校表现和考试成绩也不如女孩子。在近年来的就业市场中，强调诸如合作和换位思考等社交技能的工作数量持续增加，而像机器操作工之类的由男性主导的体力工作正呈下降趋势。
“The economic trends are pretty clear,” said Mr. Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “Women are more involved in the labor force, and less skilled men are less involved, and women are getting more educated and men are not.”
加州大学伯克利分校的经济学教授莫雷蒂表示：“当前的经济趋势十分明显。女性在劳动市场中的参与度正在逐步提高，而缺乏技能的男性正在被淘汰。同时，女性的受教育程度正在提高，而男性则没有变化。“
For parents, raising a girl can seem as if it’s about showing them all the things they can do, while raising a boy is telling them what not to do, researchers say.
研究人员表示，对于父母来说，抚养女孩意味着可以向她们展示什么是她们能做的，而抚养男孩则意味着要告诉他们什么是他们不能做的。
“There’s been a much more complete gender revolution for women than for men,” said Dan Clawson, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “If I’m raising a daughter, I’m raising someone who can challenge conventions, and that’s an attraction. On the other hand, if I’m raising a boy, am I raising someone who’s going to get in trouble, who won’t do well in school and so on?”
马萨诸塞大学安姆斯特分校的社会学教授丹·克劳森表示：“有关女性的性别革命比男性的要来得更彻底。有一个女儿意味着我在抚养一个可以挑战传统的孩子，这很有吸引力。而另一方面，如果我有一个儿子的话，是不是意味着我在抚养一个会惹麻烦、会在学校不好好表现的人？”
The fading bias against girls should cheer all who desire a more egalitarian society. But there are risks to society if what replaces it is a bias against boys.
人们对女孩的偏见正在逐步消减，这对于那些渴望社会平等的人来说是一件振奋人心的事情。但如果取代这一偏见的是人们对男孩的偏见，那对我们的社会来说是很危险的。
egalitarian /ɪˌɡæl.ɪˈteə.ri.ən/ adj. believing that all people are equally important and should have the same rights and opportunities in life平等主义的；主张人人平等的
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<原文链接：https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/upshot/americans-might-no-longer-prefer-sons-over-daughters.html>