????不過斯勞特最好重新考慮一下桑德伯格的觀點，因為有證據表明抱負上的差距的確存在。麥肯錫（McKinsey）最近調查了包括可口可樂（Ford Motor）、福特汽車（Ford Motor）和《財富》的母公司時代華納（Time Warner）在內60家公司的管理層，只有18%的女性承認對首席執行官的職位有野心，而有同樣野心的男性的比例是女性的兩倍。麥肯錫發現很多潛力巨大的女性在事業中安于中層幕僚角色（通常不會升遷至高層），而男性則力爭上游。

????而在上周的“最具影響力女性”倫敦會議上，女性抱負的缺乏多次顯現：在由《財富》華盛頓編輯尼娜?伊斯頓主持的領導力討論中，擁有律師、母親及前首相托尼?布萊爾夫人多重身份的布萊爾指出，大多數女性“人太好”，不會去爭取大幅漲工資。蘇珊?吉爾克賴斯是公關巨頭博然思維（Brunswick）的首席執行官，她也同意：“女性需要先自我證明，才能有男性一樣的自信心， 而男性一出娘胎就有自信心。”

????索拉里?德?雷克爾是硅谷風投公司Accel駐倫敦的合伙人，她注意到許多創業成功所需的品質常常是男性化的。她說，男人喜歡吹噓自己的夢想，而女人常常只宣揚自己已有的成就。

????難怪《財富》500強只有18位女性首席執行官，而500強的執行委員會成員僅有14%是女性。

????But Slaughter would be wise to reconsider Sandberg's viewpoint since evidence substantiates her theory of an ambition gap. In a recent McKinsey survey of managers at 60 companies including Coca-Cola (KO), Ford Motor (F) and Fortune's parent, Time Warner (TWX), 18% of women said they aspired to the CEO position. Meanwhile, 36% of men coveted the top job. McKinsey found that many high-potential women settle mid-career for staff roles--which generally don't lead to the corner office--while guys gun for stretch positions.

????And at last week's MPW event in London, more indications of the female ambition deficit: In a discussion about leadership moderated by Fortune Washington Editor Nina Easton, Blair, who is a lawyer and a mother and the wife of former PM Tony Blair, pointed out that most women are "too nice" to fight for big salary increases. Susan Gilchrist, CEO of PR giant Brunswick, added, "Women have to prove themselves to themselves to have the same level of confidence that men have the moment they drop out of the womb."

????Sonali de Rycker, a London-based partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel, noted that many of the qualities that make an entrepreneur successful tend to be male. While men promote their dreams, she said, women tend to sell the reality of what they've already accomplished.

????No wonder the Fortune 500 has only 18 female CEOs, while just 14% of Fortune 500 executive committee members are women.

??? 斯勞特相信，如果公司為雄心勃勃的女性提供彈性工時和其它方便家庭的計劃，這些數據會大幅改善。她的文章打破了《大西洋月刊》網站的訪問紀錄，同時，她在普林斯頓大學（Princeton）的郵箱也收到數以百計的電郵（她在該校教授政治和國際關系課程，郵箱也公布在大學網站上）。某位33歲的女律師告訴斯勞特，她想要兩樣東西：生第二胎，還有公司的法律總顧問職位。然而，當她要求每周在家工作一天時，老板卻斷然拒絕，還選擇了外部候選人來擔任總顧問。“真是荒謬，”斯勞特說。“男人每周在飛機上就要呆一天。”

????If companies enabled ambitious women via flexible hours and other family-friendly programs, these numbers would improve dramatically, Slaughter believes. Her article, which broke traffic records on the Atlantic website, also brought hundreds of emails into her mailbox at Princeton, where she teaches politics and international affairs. (She lists her email address on the University website.). One 33-year-old woman lawyer told Slaughter that she wanted two things: a second child and the general counsel job at her employer. When the woman asked to work from home one day a week, her bosses said no and selected an outside candidate for the top legal job. "That is totally absurd," says Slaughter, adding "Men are on planes one day a week."