今回の記事は「女性の新しいトレンド――妊娠」という内容です。さていったいどういう内容なのでしょうか。

音声

今回の記事の音声です。まずは音声を聴いてみて下さい。

本日のSentence

Besides, men are more involved in family duties and many women now don’t feel the need to choose between work and family.

さらに、男性はより家事を負担し、多くの女性は仕事と家庭を選ぶ必要性を感じていない。

BEProの原文からです。お時間があれば、是非読んでみて下さい。

Women appear to be breaking away from the stereotype that being aggressive in the pursuit of higher education and a fruitful career means they are less interested in having children. The number of highly educated women who are making time to have children has been growing in recent years. While the overall birth rate keeps declining, well-educated women seem to be having more children, not fewer.

A new study by the Pew Research Center, based on an analysis of census data, looks at American women in their mid-40s over the past two decades. The focus was on women’s educational background and the manner in which it was connected to motherhood. Categories such as race, age and education were also taken into consideration. The results indicated that the proportion of all women who reach that age without ever having a child has fallen, and the decline is most prominent among the best-educated women. .

In the 1990s, about a third of women in their early 40s who had a master’s or higher degree were childless. But by 2014, this was the case for only 22 % of highly educated women. It still holds true that the better-educated a woman is, the less likely she is to have a child. But the gap seems to have narrowed. Today, six-in-10 women with master’s degrees or higher have two or more children..(continue)

ボキャブラリー

• opt : [verb] 選択する。さまざまな可能性から選択すること
• decline : [verb] 下落する、衰える。悪くなる、少なくなる
• improvement : [noun] 改善。他のものよりも良くなること
• duty : [noun] 義務。モラルまたは法律上の義務、責任
• aim : [noun] 狙う、目指す。達成する目的を持つこと

日本語訳

最近、妊娠することを選ぶ高学歴の女性の数が増えている。

ピュー研究所が行った40代半ばの女性に関する調査によると、その年齢に達した時に、子供がいない女性の数が減ってきているという。

この変化は、健康技術に関する優れた教育と改善によるものである。男女の同一賃金や変化する結婚の状態も一部関わっている。教育や仕事の目的は、今日の世界では子供を持つことの妨げになっていない。

さらに、男性はより家事を負担し、多くの女性は仕事と家庭を選ぶ必要性を感じていない。