The person writing this post is a woman. It is very likely that, generally speaking, most of the people reading it will also be women. Those of you who studied translation and interpreting at the university might have surely noticed that most of your fellow students were of the fair sex.

What is the reason for this? Is it true that women are better at languages and communication, whereas men are better at science and tech? Well, many studies have debunked the idea that there’s any such thing as a “female brain” or a “male brain.” It is believed that it is not a biological reason but a social one. It is likely that the reason why most of the translation students are women is simply because we as a society have mistakenly learned that women are better at it than men.

Let us take Spain as an example. According to the latest data from ACE (Spanish association of writers and translators), 64 percent of certified translators in this country are women and 36 percent are men. In translation schools, a staggering 90 percent of students are women.

However, only 13 women have won the National Translation Prize given by the Ministry of Culture since 1984, opposed to 48 men. Spain is not an exception – all around the world there are more women than men in our profession, yet more translation prizes go to men. 

What are the challenges faced by women translators?

Translation is a very invisible field to begin with, often performed in the comfort of our own homes. It has taken translators a long time to see their names on book covers, a recognition that is still not always given. The need for women translators to be acknowledged is even more important.

In companies all around the world, most of the management positions are occupied by men, and translation companies are not an exception. This unequal balance of power has been slowly improving in recent years, as more and more women start to take on responsibility roles.

And what happens at home, where most of us do our jobs? Studies have shown that caring responsibilities fall on women more than men – women account for 85 percent of sole carers for children and 65 percent of sole carers for older adults. Therefore, it is likely that women translators working at home take on more responsibilities related to childcare and household chores than their male counterparts.

We have not discussed the challenges faced by women interpreters, which are similar but also completely different. We will do it for sure at some point.

Happy Women’s Day!

Sources:

–La impostora. Cuaderno de traducción de una escritora by Nuria Barros, 2022.

–https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/men-and-women-equally-good-at-science-but-men-think-they-re-better/–https://workplaceinsight.net/caring-responsibilities-disproportionately-impact-womens-lives-and-careers/