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 the active-duty military have 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, generous family 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(guó)國(guó)會(huì)上周五公布的一份報(bào)告顯示，美國(guó)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(huì)的報(bào)告，美國(guó)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(bào)告稱，雖然軍隊(duì)駐扎在這兩個(gè)地區(qū)的時(shí)間越來(lái)越長(zhǎng)、調(diào)兵也越來(lái)越頻繁，但孩子看護(hù)服務(wù)并沒(méi)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(shuō)：“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(duì)于她們的家庭幸福及我們的國(guó)防安全十分關(guān)鍵?！? “如果這些問(wèn)題得不到解決，會(huì)對(duì)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(bào)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(huì)公布，其中大部分?jǐn)?shù)據(jù)來(lái)源于美國(guó)國(guó)防部。 報(bào)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(guó)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(bào)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(huì)變得很困難。 報(bào)告稱，“目前軍方已經(jīng)增開了兒童看護(hù)中心，但據(jù)全國(guó)軍人家庭協(xié)會(huì)估計(jì)，軍隊(duì)開設(shè)的兒童看護(hù)中心數(shù)量比預(yù)計(jì)需要少近3萬(wàn)5千個(gè)?！?BR> （英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）