We do not invest in victims, we invest in survivors. And in ways both big and small, the narrative of the victim shapes the way we see women. You can't count what you don't see. And we don't invest in what's invisible to us. But this is the face of resilience.
我们不对弱者投资 我们投资的是求生者 弱者的故事, 从各个方面 促成了我们对女性的看法。 眼见为实。 我们不会投资我们看不见的东西。 而这张面孔上 写着坚韧不拔。
Six years ago, I started writing about women entrepreneurs during and after conflict. I set out to write a compelling economic story, one that had great characters, that no one else was telling, and one that I thought mattered. And that turned out to be women.
六年前, 我开始写女性企业家 有冲突中和冲突后的故事。 我开始着手撰写一个吸引人的经济故事, 这个故事的主角都了不起,没被别人讲过, 而且在我看了这故事意义重大。 结果我选择了女性为故事主题。
I had left ABC news and a career I loved at the age of 30 for business school, a path I knew almost nothing about. None of the women I had grown up with in Maryland had graduated from college, let alone considered business school. But they had hustled to feed their kids and pay their rent. And I saw from a young age that having a decent job and earning a good living made the biggest difference for families who were struggling.
当时我离开了ABC新闻台,离开了我热爱的事业,我当时正值而立之年 我去读了商学, 这是个我几乎一无所知的领域。 与我一同在马里兰州长大的女性朋友 没有一人大学毕业, 更不用说去念商学院了。 她们为喂养孩子 交房租而忙碌着。 我很小的时候 就认为拥有一份体面的工作,挣得一份不错的工资 最能帮助 那些勉强度日的家庭。
So if you're going to talk about jobs, then you have to talk about entrepreneurs. And if you're talking about entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict settings, then you must talk about women, because they are the population you have left. Rwanda in the immediate aftermath of the genocide was 77 percent female. I want to introduce you to some of those entrepreneurs I've met and share with you some of what they've taught me over the years.
如果要讲就业, 那就不能不提企业家。 讲到企业家 在冲突中和后冲突时期, 那就不得不提女性, 因为她们是冲突后剩下来的人口。 卢旺达在大屠杀之后 剩下人口的百分之七十七为女性。 我想把我认识的几位企业家 介绍给你们 并与你们分享这些年我从她们身上学到的东西。
I went to Afghanistan in 2005 to work on a Financial Times piece, and there I met Kamila, a young women who told me she had just turned down a job with the international community that would have paid her nearly $2,000 a month -- an astronomical sum in that context. And she had turned it down, she said, because she was going to start her next business, an entrepreneurship consultancy that would teach business skills to men and women all around Afghanistan. Business, she said, was critical to her country's future. Because long after this round of internationals left, business would help keep her country peaceful and secure. And she said business was even more important for women because earning an income earned respect and money was power for women.
我2005年去到阿富汗 做财经时报的一篇报道, 我遇到了一位年轻的女性卡米拉, 她告诉我, 她才谢绝了 一份与国际社会相关的工作 这份工作给她开出了2000美元的月薪 这在当地可是个天文数字。 她谢绝了这份工作, 是因为她即将开始她下一项事业, 一个创业咨询公司 在阿富汗各地 教授人们各种创业技能。 她说:创业 关乎她祖国的未来。 因为在国际组织离开之后, 创业能够帮助她的祖国 维持和平与安全。 她说 创业对于女性而言更为重要 能挣钱就能赢得尊重 对于女性金钱就意味着力量。
So I was amazed. I mean here was a girl who had never lived in peace time who somehow had come to sound like a candidate from "The Apprentice." (Laughter) So I asked her, "How in the world do you know this much about business? Why are you so passionate?" She said, "Oh Gayle, this is actually my third business. My first business was a dressmaking business I started under the Taliban. And that was actually an excellent business, because we provided jobs for women all around our neighborhood. And that's really how I became an entrepreneur."
我非常佩服她。 这个女孩儿从未经历和平时期 说话的口气却好比真人秀“飞黄腾达”中的竞技者。 (众人笑) 我问她:“ 你怎么会对创业这么了解? 你哪来这么大的热情?” 她说:“ 哦,盖尔,这都是我第三次创业了。 我第一次创业是做服装。 当时还是在塔利班的统治下。 我们做的很不错, 因为给周围的女性提供了就业。 我就是这样成为一名企业家的。”
Think about this: Here were girls who braved danger to become breadwinners during years in which they couldn't even be on their streets. And at a time of economic collapse when people sold baby dolls and shoe laces and windows and doors just to survive, these girls made the difference between survival and starvation for so many. I couldn't leave the story, and I couldn't leave the topic either, because everywhere I went I met more of these women who no one seemed to know about, or even wish to.
我们想想: 在连门都出不了的动荡年月里 有这样一些女孩子 不惧危险 自力更生。 当经济陷入瘫痪 当人们卖洋娃娃 卖鞋带 卖门窗 只为能生存下去时, 这些女孩子起了重要的作用 帮助许多人解决了温饱 重拾了生计。 我不能不与人分享这个故事,也不能不关注这个主题, 因为 不管我走到哪里 都能碰到更多这样的女性 而外界对她们似乎一无所知, 甚至不屑于了解她们的事迹。
I went on to Bosnia, and early on in my interviews I met with an IMF official who said, "You know, Gayle, I don't think we actually have women in business in Bosnia, but there is a lady selling cheese nearby on the side of the road. So maybe you could interview her." So I went out reporting and within a day I met Narcisa Kavazovic who at that point was opening a new factory on the war's former front lines in Sarajevo. She had started her business squatting in an abandoned garage, sewing sheets and pillow cases she would take to markets all around the city so that she could support the 12 or 13 family members who were counting on her for survival. By the time we met, she had 20 employees, most of them women, who were sending their boys and their girls to school. And she was just the start. I met women running essential oils businesses, wineries and even the country's largest advertising agency.
我接着去了波斯尼亚, 在采访之初 我去见了一位国际货币基金组织的官员 那位官员说:“ 盖尔, 我认为波斯尼亚没有任何女性企业家。 不过,马路对面 有一个卖奶酪的妇女。 或许你可以去采访她。” 于是 我就做报道去了 一天不到 我见到了纳尔希萨.卡瓦索维克 她当时正好在萨拉热窝战时的前线 开办一家新的工厂。 在一个废弃的狭小车库里 她开始了她的事业, 缝制床单和枕套 她把床单枕套拿到全城各个市场上去卖 以此来供养 12到13个家庭成员 他们都依靠她谋生。 我和她见面时, 她有20名员工, 主要是女性, 她们都在供儿女上学。 她的事业才刚起步。 我还见过负责重要石油公司, 经营酒庄 甚至经营该国最大广告公司的女性。
So these stories together became the Herald Tribune business cover. And when this story posted, I ran to my computer to send it to the IMF official. And I said, "Just in case you're looking for entrepreneurs to feature at your next investment conference, here are a couple of women."
这些事迹 一同登上了前驱论坛报商业版封面。 文章一经出版, 我立刻跑到电脑前 把它发给那位国际货币基金组织的官员。 我说:“ 要是您在找企业家 参加你们下一届投资大会, 这里有几位女性人选。”
(Applause)
(众人鼓掌)
But think about this. The IMF official is hardly the only person to automatically file women under micro. The biases, whether intentional or otherwise, are pervasive, and so are the misleading mental images. If you see the word "microfinance," what comes to mind? Most people say women. And if you see the word "entrepreneur," most people think men. Why is that? Because we aim low and we think small when it comes to women.
但话说回来, 这位国际货币基金组织的官员 并不是唯一个小瞧女性的人。 这些偏见,不论在国际上还是其他地方, 都普遍存在, 对女性错误的印象是存在的。 看到“小额信贷”一词, 你们会想到什么? 许多人会说 女性。 而看到“企业家”一词, 人们往往会马上想到男性。 为什么? 因为我们对女性的期望低 小看她们,
Microfinance is an incredibly powerful tool that leads to self-sufficiency and self-respect, but we must move beyond micro-hopes and micro-ambitions for women, because they have so much greater hopes for themselves. They want to move from micro to medium and beyond. And in many places, they're there. In the U.S., women-owned businesses will create five and a half million new jobs by 2018. In South Korea and Indonesia, women own nearly half a million firms. China, women run 20 percent of all small businesses. And in the developing world overall, That figure is 40 to 50 percent.
小额信贷是一个相当有力的工具 帮助人们自给自足 提升自尊, 但我们对女性不能只抱微小的希望 和微小的期许, 因为她们对自身怀抱的是更宏伟的希望。 她们想从微小晋升到中等再晋升到更高水平。 在许多地方, 她们已经处于更高水平了。 在美国,女性经营的企业 到2018年将创造550万新增工作岗位。 在韩国和印度尼西亚, 女性经营的公司将近有五十多万家。 在中国,百分之二十的小型企业经营者 为女性。 而在发展中国家, 女性经营着百分之四十到五十的企业。
Nearly everywhere I go, I meet incredibly interesting entrepreneurs who are seeking access to finance, access to markets and established business networks. They are often ignored because they're harder to help. It is much riskier to give a 50,000 dollar loan than it is to give a 500 dollar loan. And as the World Bank recently noted, women are stuck in a productivity trap. Those in small businesses can't get the capital they need to expand and those in microbusiness can't grow out of them.
我所到之处, 我几乎都能见到非常有能力的企业家 正四处寻求资金,进入市场 并加入已有的商业网络。 但她们常不受到重视 因为帮助她们难度较大。 贷出50000美元的风险 比贷出500美元要高得多。 根据世界银行最近公布的情况, 女性被困入了生产力的陷阱中。 小企业的经营者 无法得到所需的资金扩大企业规模 那些微型企业 无法进一步壮大。
Recently I was at the State Department in Washington and I met an incredibly passionate entrepreneur from Ghana. She sells chocolates. And she had come to Washington, not seeking a handout and not seeking a microloan. She had come seeking serious investment dollars so that she could build the factory and buy the equipment she needs to export her chocolates to Africa, Europe, the Middle East and far beyond -- capital that would help her to employ more than the 20 people that she already has working for her, and capital that would fuel her own country's economic climb.
最近 我去了位于华盛顿的国务院 见到了来自加纳的一位充满朝气的企业家。 她卖巧克力。 她去到华盛顿, 为的不是寻求施舍或小额贷款。 她寻求的是大笔的投资 这样她才能建工厂 和购买所需的设施 将巧克力 出口到非洲,欧洲,中东 以及世界各地- 她寻求资金来聘请更多员工 现在为她工作的员工 只有20名, 她寻求资金来推动祖国的 经济一步步往上爬。
The great news is we already know what works. Theory and empirical evidence Have already taught us. We don't need to invent solutions because we have them -- cash flow loans based in income rather than assets, loans that use secure contracts rather than collateral, because women often don't own land. And Kiva.org, the microlender, is actually now experimenting with crowdsourcing small and medium sized loans. And that's just to start.
好在 我们知道哪些做法是有效的。 理论与实证 都教会了我们怎么做。 我们不用想办法 因为我们已经有办法了-- 根据收入而非资产 来发放现金流贷款, 以可靠的合同而不是抵押的方式来发放贷款, 因为女性通常没有土地。 小额信贷机构Kiva.org, 正在尝试众包 中小额贷款。 这还只是一个开始。
Recently it has become very much in fashion to call women "the emerging market of the emerging market." I think that is terrific. You know why? Because -- and I say this as somebody who worked in finance -- 500 billion dollars at least has gone into the emerging markets in the past decade. Because investors saw the potential for return at a time of slowing economic growth, and so they created financial products and financial innovation tailored to the emerging markets.
现在时下流行的一句话是 “女性是新兴市场的新兴市场”。 这妙极了。 知道为什么吗? 因为--我是作为一个曾经涉足金融业的人才这么说的-- 至少有5000亿美元 在过去十年中进入了新兴市场。 因为投资者在经济增长缓慢的时期中 看到了资金回报的潜力, 于是他们推出了 为新兴市场量身打造的 金融产品。
How wonderful would it be if we were prepared to replace all of our lofty words with our wallets and invest 500 billion dollars unleashing women's economic potential? Just think of the benefits when it comes to jobs, productivity, employment, child nutrition, maternal mortality, literacy and much, much more. Because, as the World Economic Forum noted, smaller gender gaps are directly correlated with increased economic competitiveness. And not one country in all the world has eliminated its economic participation gap -- not one.
如果我们用腰包里的钱 替换我们高尚的口号 把5000亿美元 投资给女性 释放她们的经济潜力 这难道不是绝妙的做法吗? 想想这能带来多少好处 工作岗位,生产力, 就业,儿童营养, 婴儿出生率,文化程度 还有很多很多。 正如世界经济论坛提出的, 这是由于 经济竞争力的提升 直接影响了性别差距的缩短。 而世界上没有一个国家 消除了经济参与差距-- 一个国家都没有。
So the great news is this is an incredible opportunity. We have so much room to grow. So you see, this is not about doing good, this is about global growth and global employment. It is about how we invest and it's about how we see women. And women can no longer be both half the population and a special interest group.
所幸的是 这是一个绝好的机会。 我们有着极大的成长空间。 所以, 这不是在做慈善事业, 而是事关全球增长 和全球就业。 事关我们如何投资 如何看待女性。 作为世界一半的人口 女性不能再继续 被视为一个特殊利益群体了。
(Applause)
(众人鼓掌)
Oftentimes I get into very interesting discussions with reporters who say to me, "Gayle, these are great stories, but you're really writing about the exceptions." Now that makes me pause for just a couple reasons. First of all, for exceptions, there are a lot of them and they're important. Secondly, when we talk about men who are succeeding, we rightly consider them icons or pioneers or innovators to be emulated. And when we talk about women, they are either exceptions to be dismissed or aberrations to be ignored. And finally, there is no society anywhere in all the world that is not changed except by its most exceptional. So why wouldn't we celebrate and elevate these change makers and job creators rather than overlook them?
我常常跟记者们进行非常有趣的讨论 他们对我说:“ 盖尔,这些事迹都很了不起, 但是你写的都只是特例。” 听到这话 我停下来想了想。 第一,如果这些是特例的话 那也太多了吧 而且都那么重要。 第二,当谈到成功的男性时, 我们顺理成章地 把他们当做偶像,先锋 或创新家 来效仿。 而谈到成功的女性, 就说她们是特例 或特殊情况 可以忽略不计。 最后, 世界上任何一个社会 无一不受 这一最特殊群体的影响而被改变。 我们为什么不称赞并鼓励 这些变革者 这些创造就业者 而是忽视她们呢
This topic of resilience is very personal to me and in many ways has shaped my life. My mom was a single mom who worked at the phone company during the day and sold Tupperware at night so that I could have every opportunity possible. We shopped double coupons and layaway and consignment stores, and when she got sick with stage four breast cancer and could no longer work, we even applied for food stamps. And when I would feel sorry for myself as nine or 10 year-old girls do, she would say to me, "My dear, on a scale of major world tragedies, yours is not a three."
对坚韧不拔这一主题我有切身体会 从很多方面塑造了我的人生。 我妈妈是个单身母亲 过去 她白天在电话公司上班 晚上销售塑料制品 好让我能够享受各种机会。 我们买东西都用双重优惠券 分期累积预付 去二手商店, 当她患了晚期乳癌 身体虚弱 不能继续工作的时候, 我们甚至使用了粮票 正如每个九岁或十岁的孩子 我觉得自己命很苦 这时她就会对我说:“ 宝贝,你受的这点苦, 还不到国际水平呢。”
(Laughter)
(众人笑)
And when I was applying to business school and felt certain I couldn't do it and nobody I knew had done it, I went to my aunt who survived years of beatings at the hand of her husband and escaped a marriage of abuse with only her dignity intact. And she told me, "Never import other people's limitations."
当我申请商学院时 我认为自己肯定上不了 我认识的人中没有人上过, 我去找我阿姨, 她多年遭受丈夫的殴打 最后她逃出了这段充满暴力的婚姻 保全了自己的尊严。 她对我说, “ 别人做不到,决不代表你也做不到。”
And when I complained to my grandmother, a World War II veteran who worked in film for 50 years and who supported me from the age of 13, that I was terrified that if I turned down a plum assignment at ABC for a fellowship overseas, I would never ever, ever find another job, she said, "Kiddo, I'm going to tell you two things. First of all, no one turns down a Fulbright, and secondly, McDonald's is always hiring." (Laughter) "You will find a job. Take the leap."
我的祖母, 参加过二战 在电影界工作了50年 从我13岁起开始抚养我, 我向她抱怨说 我很害怕 如果我拒绝了ABC电视台的美差 而加入一个海外的奖学金项目, 我可能再也找不到另一份工作了, 她对我说:“ 丫头,两句话, 第一,谁都不会拒绝福布莱特奖学金。 第二,麦当劳一直在招人。” (众人笑) “ 你会找到工作的,放心去飞吧。”
The women in my family are not exceptions. The women in this room and watching in L.A. and all around the world are not exceptions. We are not a special interest group. We are the majority. And for far too long, we have underestimated ourselves and been undervalued by others. It is time for us to aim higher when it comes to women, to invest more and to deploy our dollars to benefit women all around the world.
我家族中的女性 绝非特例。 在座的女性 在洛杉矶收看直播的女性 世界各个角落的女性 都不是特例。 我们不是一个特殊利益群体。 我们是多数。 长久以来, 我们低估了自己 也被其他人瞧不起。 现在 看待女性时 我们要抱以更高的期许, 为她们提供更多投资 用我们的钱造福世界各地的女性。
We can make a difference, and make a difference, not just for women, but for a global economy that desperately needs their contributions. Together we can make certain that the so-called exceptions begin to rule. When we change the way we see ourselves, others will follow. And it is time for all of us to think bigger.
我们能够做出重大贡献, 不仅只为女性, 更是为了全球经济 它急切需要女性的贡献。 我们携手并进 能够让所谓的特例人群 发挥力量 只要我们改变了对自己的看法, 其他人也会对我们另眼相看 我们从现在开始 高瞻远瞩吧
Thank you very much.
非常感谢大家。
(Applause)
(众人鼓掌)