Do you know Meg Whitman? Even if you've never heard of her, you probably know her company: eBay, one of the most popular sites on the Internet. How abou

t Carly Fiorina? She's the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest computer makers. Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women. And other female executives are in a position to take the reins at other major companies, such as Oracle and Intel.

　　你认识梅格·怀特曼吗？就算你没听说过她，你可能知道她的公司eBay，网络上最受欢迎的网站之一。那么卡莉·菲奥瑞娜呢？她是全球最大的计算机制造商之一惠普公司的首席执行官。施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。而其他女性主管也掌管着甲骨文和英特尔这样的大公司。

　　Some people say that women are practically taking over the high-tech industry. Could it be true?

　　有人说女性几乎要接管高科技产业了。这会是真的吗？

　　Not quite. Only seven of the 500 largest companies are run by women. Yet most of those are high-tech companies. It's an industry that has been especially good to women for several reasons.

　　不尽然。前500家大公司中只有7家由女性掌管。但这其中多数是高科技公司。高科技公司一向青睐女性原因有几个：

　　Firstly, high-tech is a new industry, and as such, it doesn't always play by the same old rules. It first gained ground in California's Silicon Valley, a relatively liberal climate, and therefore more accepting of female executives. Most importantly, the high-tech industry, because it is new, has no "old-boy network." Without family and networking connections, the industry has relied on individual results to determine promotions. In other words, a person's success in high-tech depends on his or her work performance - not on family or golfing buddies.

　　首先，高技术产业是新兴产业，因此，它不会老是因循守旧。它从加州的硅谷发展起来的，那里的风气相对自由开明，所以较易接受女性主管。最重要的是，高技术产业因为很新，所以没有“老同学关系网”。这个产业没有家族和人际关系的影响，晋升与否取决于个人的成就。换句话说，个人成就在高技术产业中取决于他或她的工作表现，而非家族人员或高尔夫球友。

　　It's still not easy for women. In order for them to succeed in business, they have often had to behave like men; this has earned these tough businesswomen a lot of enemies. Every time a female CEO fails, she is bound to receive plenty of bad publicity. But now that the glass ceiling has been broken in the high-tech industry, the sky may be the limit for female executives.

　　这对女性而言还是不容易。为了在职场上获得成功，她们经常需要表现得像男人，这让这些顽强的职场女性树敌颇多。每当有女性首席执行官失败，她一定会接到许多负面的公众评价。但是在高技术产业里，既然阻挠女性晋升的“职场限制”已经被打破，那些女性主管可以说是前途无量。