In the days when wages were paid weekly in cash, my father handed his pay to my mother on Friday evenings. It was the norm in our northern English industrial town. Women had greater credibility as custodians of family resources. They were deemed less likely to spend the money impulsively on non-essentials because they would put the family’s most important needs first; ahead of playing dominoes in the pub, say.

在过去工资每周以现金支付的时候，每周五晚上我父亲都会把工资交给我母亲。这是我们英格兰北部工业城镇的惯例。女性管理家庭资源更让人放心。人们认为，妇女冲动消费购买非必需品的可能性更低，因为她们会把家庭最重要的需要放在首位，例如，放在去酒吧玩多米诺骨牌之前。

The notion that women typically do act and think in different ways from men is contentious (you will have to take my word for it that they play less dominoes). Generalisations about the sexes are dangerous, and often a cover for sexism. But there are differences and they do clearly manifest themselves in the absence of women from many areas of economics and finance – and from the leadership of central banks.

女性的行为和思维方式通常确实与男性不同，这一观点是存有争议的（不过我敢向你打包票女性玩骨牌较少）。在性别问题上一概而论是很危险的，往往成为性别歧视的借口。但男女之间确实有差别，这一点清晰地体现在经济学与金融学的诸多领域中女性缺位，以及各国央行缺少女性领导人上面。

So there are good reasons for seeing the nomination of Janet Yellen to lead the US Federal Reserve as an important milestone that goes beyond the inherent merit of a society marked by equality, in the sense of ensuring that we do not discriminate between people on the basis of irrelevant characteristics.

因此，珍妮特•耶伦(Janet Yellen)获得美联储(Federal Reserve)主席提名，有充足的理由认为这是重大里程碑，它不仅体现了一个以平等为标志的社会的固有价值，还确保我们不会因为无关紧要的特征而对人加以歧视。

Economics is – notoriously – prone to abstracting from important aspects of real life, including in its assumptions about how people behave. It is also one of the most male-dominated professional disciplines, rivalled only by computer science and physics. The proportion of women declines at higher levels of the pecking order, whether in the academic world or in the world of policy and business, with a greater rate of drop-off than in professions such as law or accountancy.

众所周知，经济学往往从现实生活的重要方面进行概括抽象，其中包括经济学对人类行为的假设。经济学也是男性主宰程度最高的专业学科之一，男性比重之高，只有计算机科学与物理学可与之相比。不管是在学界还是政策与商业世界，女性比例随着权势等级的提高而下降，下降幅度高于法律与会计等职业领域。

The proportion of women is also far, far lower in macroeconomics and finance – the specialisms needed in central banking – than in areas of applied microeconomics such as the economics of health, education or the labour market. I suspect the conventional macroeconomics taught in universities since at least the 1970s just does not interest many women. Perhaps it is because of something in macroeconomic modelling, perhaps a self-reinforcing selection process, perhaps some other reason. We do not know why.

与医疗保健、教育或劳动力市场经济学等应用微观经济学相比，宏观经济学和金融学领域（从事央行工作必需的专业）中女性的比例也低得多。我怀疑这是因为，高校至少自20世纪70年代以来教授的传统宏观经济学，就是引不起多少女性的兴趣。或许是因为宏观经济学建模的问题，或许是因为某种自我强化的选择过程，或许是什么其他原因。我们不知道具体是为什么。

But we do know that women are observably more likely to specialise in areas of economics that are more firmly rooted in empirical evidence and experience of how people actually behave. If macroeconomic policy, including central banking, were an unquestioned success story, this sorting process might matter less. But, as it is, appointing some different kinds of people to run central banks is a welcome move.

但我们知道的是，女性明显更容易专于更加坚固地根植于经验证据和人们实际行为经验的经济学领域。如果宏观经济政策（包括央行管理）是无可置疑的成功故事，这一筛选流程可能就不是那么重要了。但事实上，任命不同类型的人管理央行是受欢迎的举措。

I do not know Ms Yellen, nor do I know whether she likes or dislikes people making anything of the fact that she is a woman, but I am pleased she has joined the formerly all-male club of western central bankers because the chances are that she will think differently.

我不认识耶伦，也不知道她是否喜欢别人拿她的女性身份说事。但我很高兴她加入了此前完全由男性组成的西方央行银行家俱乐部，因为她可能用不同的方式考虑问题。

The most important reason for welcoming Ms Yellen’s appointment, however, is the need for independent central banks to have legitimacy in their societies, especially at such an important time for economic policy. Monetary policy is in the hands of independent central banks; they are important national institutions whose actions have a huge influence on the lives of their fellow citizens, in terms of buying homes, running businesses, buying annuities when they retire, looking for jobs and living off their savings. Their legitimacy is rooted in the characters of the people running them. So central banks have to find the balance between true expertise and independence of judgment when it comes to making the unavoidable trade-offs arising from monetary policy, and reflecting their society.

不过，欢迎耶伦的最重要原因是，独立央行必须在其所处的社会中拥有合法性，尤其是在经济政策上如此重要的时期。货币政策握在独立央行手中。这些央行是重要的国家机构，其举动对公民同胞生活的方方面面都有着重大影响：买房、经商、退休时购买养老保险、找工作以及以靠储蓄生活等。央行的合法性来源于央行管理者的个性。因此，央行在货币政策中做出不可避免的取舍，体现所处社会的价值时，必须在货真价实的专业知识与独立判断之间找到平衡。

On the whole, they have done well at safeguarding their independence of thought, but poorly at reflecting their societies. Finance is male territory. It was almost entirely men who brought about the financial crisis. It is unacceptable to have monetary policy and financial regulation remain almost entirely male territory.

总体而言，央行在捍卫其独立思维方面表现良好，但在反映其社会诉求方面表现糟糕。金融是男人的世界。带来金融危机的也几乎完全是男人。继续让男人完全主宰货币政策和金融监管就不可接受了。

It is a scandal that the UK’s Monetary Policy Committee and the governing council of the European Central Bank are all male (no, I don’t want a job). It is hard to think of other important forums where that would be acceptable. There are women in the top jobs in central banks outside the advanced economies – but Ms Yellen’s appointment to the prominent Fed chairmanship is still an important moment.

英国货币政策委员会(Monetary Policy Committee)和欧洲央行(ECB)理事会完全由男性组成，实在令人惭愧（我可不是想为自己谋差事）。很难设想这种情况在其他重要论坛上能为人所接受。尽管发达经济体之外的央行高层有女性任职，但耶伦获任极为重要的美联储主席一职仍是一个重大时刻。