US Specialist Jennifer Fifield of the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Cavalry Regiment attends a briefing at the forward operating base of Liberty camp April 1, 2007, before leaving for a mission in Baghdad's northwest Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliya. [Reuters]

Mothers in the US military are stressed, poorly paid and need more help caring for their children, according to a report issued by Congress on Friday.

Nearly half of all women in theactive-duty militaryhave been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and 24,475 women are there now, the report by the Joint Economic Committee said.

Yet child care services are not keeping up with longer and more frequent deployments, said the report, released to coincide with Mothers' Day in the United States on Sunday.

Moreover, women get only 6 weeks of leave after the birth of a child, it found.

"Making sure military mothers have the quality child care, generousfamily leave, and access to mental health services they need is key to their family well-being and our national security," New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney said in a statement.

"Not addressing these issues could have serious implications for the retention of women in the military, and the readiness and effectiveness of our forces."

The Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan group of senators and members of the House of Representatives, used Defense Department figures for much of the report.

It said that women represent one in seven US military personnel in Iraq, and that most are in the lowest-paid ranks.

Women make up about 14.3 percent of the active-duty military, according to the report, and about 40 percent of women in the active-duty force have children compared with 44 percent of active-duty men.

However, military women are much more likely to be single or divorced, or married to other members of the military who also face deployment.

That leaves grandparents, other relatives or paid caregivers to take care of young children when parents are deployed or redeployed.

The report, available on the Internet at http://www.jec.senate.gov, said the military may be stretched to recruit and retain women if it does not provide better services.

"The military has increased the number of available child care centers, but the National Military Families Association estimates that the military is approximately 35,000 short of expected need," it said.

(Reuters)

美國國會上周五公布的一份報告顯示，美國軍人媽媽的壓力大、薪水低、而且在照顧孩子方面需要更多幫助。

據(jù)聯(lián)合經(jīng)濟(jì)委員會的報告，美國現(xiàn)役軍人中近一半的女兵都被派往了伊拉克或阿富汗，目前已達(dá)到24475人。

此份于上周日母親節(jié)當(dāng)天公布的報告稱，雖然軍隊(duì)駐扎在這兩個地區(qū)的時間越來越長、調(diào)兵也越來越頻繁，但孩子看護(hù)服務(wù)并沒有跟上。

此外，該調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，女兵的產(chǎn)假只有六周。

紐約民主黨代表卡羅琳·瑪洛尼在一份聲明中說：“保證軍人媽媽能更好的照顧孩子、享有充足的探親假及必要的心理健康咨詢服務(wù)對于她們的家庭幸福及我們的國防安全十分關(guān)鍵。”

“如果這些問題得不到解決，會對軍隊(duì)留住女兵、軍隊(duì)自身的敏銳性和效率產(chǎn)生嚴(yán)重影響。”

此份報告由參議院和眾議院的兩黨議員組成的聯(lián)合經(jīng)濟(jì)委員會公布，其中大部分?jǐn)?shù)據(jù)來源于美國國防部。

報告中稱，女兵占駐伊美軍總數(shù)的七分之一，而且她們中的大多數(shù)人薪水都很低。

女性約占美國現(xiàn)役軍人的14.3%，約40%的現(xiàn)役女兵有孩子，現(xiàn)役男兵的這一比例為44%。

但女兵單身、離婚或嫁給軍隊(duì)里其他同樣面臨調(diào)配的男兵的幾率較大。

這造成了在父母被調(diào)配或重新調(diào)配期間，孩子由祖父母、其他親戚或保姆照顧的局面。

該份在http://www.jec.senate.gov網(wǎng)站上公布的報告稱，如果軍隊(duì)不提高相關(guān)服務(wù)，招募及留住女兵將會變得很困難。

報告稱，“目前軍方已經(jīng)增開了兒童看護(hù)中心，但據(jù)全國軍人家庭協(xié)會估計，軍隊(duì)開設(shè)的兒童看護(hù)中心數(shù)量比預(yù)計需要少近3萬5千個。”

（來源：英語點(diǎn)津  姍姍編輯）