问答题
If you were a woman reading this magazine 40 years ago, the odds
were good that your husband provided the money to buy it. That you voted the
same way he did. That if you got breast cancer, he might be asked to sign the
form authorizing an operation. That your son was heading to college but not your
daughter. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}That your boss, if you
had a job, could explain that he was paying you less because, after all, you
were probably working just for pocket money.{{/U}} It's funny how
things change slowly, until the day we realize they've changed
completely.{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}It's expected that by
the end of the year, for the first time in history the maioriw of workers in the
U.S. will be women-largely because the downturn has hit men so hard.{{/U}} This is
an extraordinary change in a single generation, and it is gathering speed. More
and more women are the primary breadwinner in their household (almost 40%) or
are providing essential income for the family's bottom line. Their buying power
has never been greater-and their choices have seldom been harder.
It is in this context that the Rockefeller Foundation, in collaboration
with TIME, conducted a landmark survey of gender issues to assess how individual
Americans are reacting. {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}The study
found that men and women are in broad agreement about what matters most to them,
and as the Old Economy dissolves and pressures on working parents grow, they
share their fears and frustration{{/U}}. However, this is not to say there's
nothing left to argue about. More than two-thirds of women still think men
resent powerful women, yet women are more likely than men to say female bosses
are harder to work for than male ones. {{U}} {{U}}
4 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}Among the most puzzling changes of all is the
evidence, tracked by numerous surveys, that as women have gained more freedom,
more education and more economic power, they have become less happy{{/U}}. No tidy
theory explains the trend, but there are a few ways to look at it. {{U}}
{{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}{{U}}It may be that women have become more honest
about what troubles them; Or that they are now free to wrestle with the same
pressures and conflicts that once accounted for greater male unhappiness{{/U}}. Or
that modern life in a global economy is simply more stressful for everyone but
especially for women, who are working longer hours while playing quarterback at
home. Today's world is no longer a man's world, nor is it a
woman's nation. It's a cooperative, with bylaws under constant negotiation and
expectations that profits be equally shared.