【美国电台节目】Barbie很有事业心，下一份职业是…

WAILIN WONG, HOST:

This weekend, like many otherpeople, I put on a pink outfit and went to see the new "Barbie"movie. The film made over $300 million worldwide during its opening weekend.The Barbieverse (ph) is definitely having a moment.

ADRIAN MA, HOST:

Yes, it is. But, you know,Barbie has actually been part of life in the U.S. for decades.

WONG: Ken - not so much.

MA: (Laughter) That's true.But because Barbie has lived through so many shifts in American culture, she'sbecome this lens through which you can talk about basically anything fromfashion and politics to race and body image and even our favorite topic,economics. While there has never been an economist Barbie,her many careers, over 200 of them, tell us a lot about the journey of women inthe American workforce. Today on the show, we take a crash course in laboreconomics Barbie style.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

WONG: Are you ready to trythis?

MA: Yeah.

WONG: Do you know what thevery first Barbie's job was?

MA: The first Barbie's job -what year was that?

WONG: 1959.

MA: Was it, like, a teacher?

WONG: Oh, that's a reallygood guess. It was fashion model.

MA: Fashion model? OK.

WONG: Yep. Here she is. Shehas a high ponytail, and she's wearing a black-and-white-striped swimsuit. Thisis the original Barbie released in 1959.

Now, here is Astronaut Barbie- if you want to look at this card. She's wearing a silvery white spacesuit anda white helmet, and she's also got these brown things over her hands that looklike oven mitts.

MA: (Laughter) That's to keepout the cold vacuum of space, right?

WONG: That's true. That'strue. So what year, roughly, would you guess this astronaut Barbie wasintroduced?

MA: Wait, when did we go tothe moon? Let's say 1969.

WONG: Oh, good guess. It'sactually 1965. But if you think about it, this astronaut Barbie came out fouryears before the moon landing and almost 20 years before Sally Ride became thefirst American woman to go to space.

MA: Huh. So Barbie is, like,ahead of the curve?

WONG: Yes, exactly. 

MA: (Laughter) Yeah, I mean,you know, in economics, we talk about leading and lagging indicators, leadingindicators being these measures that signal where an economic trend might beheaded and lagging indicators that are confirming something that has alreadyhappened.

WONG: So throughout theyears, Barbie's career has sometimes been a leading indicator of what was goingon with women in the workforce. For example, Surgeon Barbie came out in 1973when there were barely any women in that specialty. Other times, Barbie'scareer has been a lagging indicator, reflecting jobs where women were alreadywell-represented like nurse or teacher.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVEDRECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1:(Singing) Teacher Barbie rings the bell for recess fun and gives a hug for ajob well done.

WONG: Do you ever think aboutwhat Retirement Barbie would look like?

FLOWERS: Oh, probably a lotlike me - probably somebody who's pretty active.

WONG: And is she stillwearing heels or is she wearing, like, gardening clogs?

FLOWERS: No, I have not wornheels in a long time. Barbie's pretty laid-back.

(LAUGHTER)

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