????但看看那些剛滿40歲但具有極高影響力的女性：44歲的吉賽爾?魯伊茲擔(dān)任沃爾瑪（Walmart）美國區(qū)執(zhí)行副總裁兼首席運(yùn)營官。上周，芯片制造商AMD任命蘇姿豐為公司新任首席執(zhí)行官，她成為這家《財(cái)富》500強(qiáng)公司的第26任CEO；她也只有44歲。今年早些時(shí)候，簡?蘭黛成為雅詩蘭黛（Estee Lauder）公司最大的業(yè)務(wù)部門倩碧（Clinique）的全球品牌總裁。健身俱樂部Equinox的總裁莎拉?羅布?奧哈根42歲，可口可樂公司（Coca-Cola）北美區(qū)氣泡飲料品牌與戰(zhàn)略營銷總裁溫迪?克拉克、雷諾煙草公司（RJ Reynolds Tobacco）新任總裁黛布拉?克魯和知名內(nèi)衣品牌Spanx創(chuàng)始人莎拉?布萊克利都是43歲。如果將范圍再擴(kuò)大到45歲，還有摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）CFO瑪麗安娜?萊克、邁蘭制藥（Mylan）CEO希瑟?布萊什、大西洋唱片公司（Atlantic Records）董事長兼COO茱莉亞?格林瓦爾德、夢工廠（Dreamworks）董事長及星巴克（Starbucks）與雅詩蘭黛的董事米勒迪?哈普森，當(dāng)然還有《向前一步》（Lean In）的作者，來自Facebook的雪莉?桑德伯格。

????這樣手握大權(quán)的年輕女性有很多。但她們卻無法進(jìn)入我們的榜單。

????為什么會(huì)出現(xiàn)這樣的情況？一個(gè)簡單的解釋是，40歲的媽媽們，最終度過了初期照看孩子的階段，這個(gè)階段需要花費(fèi)最多的時(shí)間。這樣的解釋或許是正確的，但有些人在40歲的時(shí)候剛剛有了孩子（霍布森去年當(dāng)上了媽媽，46歲的YouTube CEO蘇珊?沃西基懷上了第五個(gè)孩子）。而且，學(xué)齡兒童更容易照看這種觀點(diǎn)也并非完全正確；正如安妮-瑪麗?斯勞特指出，青春期的孩子反而更需要父母。

????另外一個(gè)原因可能是商界的形勢依舊對女性不利——許多公司和機(jī)構(gòu)內(nèi)部仍存在一種根深蒂固的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)制度，使女性上升的難度遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)大于男性——她們要進(jìn)入公司核心需要更長時(shí)間。

????此外，當(dāng)然還包括野心與自信心的差距。對這一點(diǎn)我深信不疑。（作為一名沒有孩子的單身女性，我曾讀過《向前一步》，對書中努力實(shí)現(xiàn)母親與工作平衡的觀點(diǎn)，我不想?yún)⑴c爭論。但我非常認(rèn)同書中關(guān)于女性特點(diǎn)的描寫，比如誠實(shí)地遵守規(guī)則、彬彬有禮、充分準(zhǔn)備每一件事情、質(zhì)疑自己和在職場中壓抑自己等。）

????當(dāng)然，40位40歲以下商界精英榜單的宗旨，主要是鼓勵(lì)創(chuàng)業(yè)精神，而由于各種原因，創(chuàng)業(yè)會(huì)吸引和回報(bào)更多男性。

????事實(shí)上，上述因素對于這種情況的出現(xiàn)都有一定的影響。但更積極的趨勢在于，女性正在不斷崛起，即便40歲以下的女性也開始在商界達(dá)到新的高度。今年的上榜女性，以及進(jìn)入候選人才庫的女性，都是非常杰出的。一位女性創(chuàng)業(yè)者（伊莉莎白?霍爾姆斯）的初創(chuàng)公司(Theranos公司)估值能夠與Airbnb、Uber或GoPro不相上下，這表明我們已經(jīng)跨過了一個(gè)重要的里程碑。

????我希望有一天40位40歲以下的商界精英榜單能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)男女平等。我們正在努力。在那之前，請寫信告訴我們到明年十月份仍在40歲以下的超級女強(qiáng)人。要治愈我的“四十歡悅”，唯一的可能就是有更多優(yōu)秀的女性領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者上榜。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：劉進(jìn)龍/汪皓

????And yet consider the long list of incredibly powerful women in their early 40s: At 44, Gisel Ruiz holds the huge title of EVP and COO of Walmart U.S. WMT -0.93% . Just last week, Lisa Su became the 26th CEO of a Fortune 500 company when chipmaker AMD AMD 0.74% named her its new chief; she’s 44. Earlier this year, 41-year-old Jane Lauder became global brand president of Clinique—Estee Lauder Companies’ EL -2.24% biggest business. Sarah Robb O’Hagan, president of Equinox, is 42, while Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola’s KO -0.90% president of sparkling brands and strategic marketing, North America, Debra Crew, newly-named president of RJ Reynolds Tobacco RAI -1.34% , and Spanx founder Sara Blakely are all 43. If we extend the universe to 45, we get to Marianne Lake, CFO of JPMorgan Chase JPM -0.62% , Heather Bresch, CEO of MylanMYL -3.47% , Julie Greenwald, chairman and COO of Atlantic Records, Mellody Hobson, chairman of DreamworksDWA -0.97% and director of Starbucks SBUX -3.05% and Estee Lauder—and of course Sheryl Sandberg, she of Facebook FB 0.11% and Lean In.

????That’s a lot of young women—and a lot of power. But none of it under 40.

????What can we take from this? One easy explanation might be that in their 40s, those women with children have finally emerged from the early childcare years that can be the most time-consuming. That may be true, but many are still having children well into their 40s (Hobson became a mom last year, and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube GOOG -2.07% , is pregnant with her fifth child at 46). And the notion that kids become easier once they’re school-age is not always true; as Anne-Marie Slaughter has pointed out, it’s often during their teenage years that children need their parents more.

????Another reason might be that given the way the cards are still stacked against women in business—there is an entrenched reward system at work in many corporations and institutions that makes it harder for women to climb than men— it takes them longer to get to the powerhouse ranks.

????There’s also talk, of course, of ambition and confidence gaps. I believe these to be true and real. (Reading Lean In as a single woman with no children, I stayed out of the debate around the book’s points on juggling motherhood and work. But the characterization of women dutifully following the rules, being polite, overpreparingfor everything, doubting themselves and otherwise holding themselves back in the workplace rang very, very true to me.)

????And, of course, the 40 under 40 list tends to reward entrepreneurship in particular, which, for a variety of reasons, tends to draw and reward men in much greater numbers than women.

????In truth, all of the above probably contribute in some way. The much more positive trend, though, is that momentum is picking up and that women have started to scale new heights across all of business, even under 40. The caliber of the women on the list and the pool we had to choose from this year was exceptional. And we crossed an important milestone when a woman entrepreneur surfaced with a startup whose valuation could go toe to toe with Airbnb, Uber or GoPro in Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.

????I have every hope that one day the 40 under 40 will reach parity. We’re on our way. Until then, send me your ideas for super powerful women who will still be under the age of 40 next October. The only cure for my fortyfreude is more stellar young women leaders. Email me at leigh_gallagher@fortune.com.