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Last week I was talking to a group of twenty-something women lawyers who had just started work in the City of London. One told me she was fed up with being asked how old she was by middle-aged colleagues and clients. The others agreed: they got asked their age all the time and they hated it. They saw it as a way of undermining their authority and putting them in their place. 不久前，我和一群刚刚开始伦敦金融城从业生涯的20多岁的女律师聊过天。其中一人告诉我，她对年届中年的同事和客户问她年龄感到不胜其烦。其他人也表示赞同：老是有人问到她们的年龄，她们觉得烦透了。在她们看来，问这种问题不过是为了削弱她们的威信，把她们“打回原形”。 When I got into the office the next day I did a survey of the youngest people I could find and asked if the same thing happened to them. Almost all said yes – not just the women, but the men, too. 第二天，到办公室后，我对我能找到的办公室里最年轻的人士做了一项调查，问他们是否也有同样的遭遇。几乎所有人都做出了肯定答复——不仅是女士，男士亦然。 | 
