Women head governments, run companies and comprise about half the world's workforce¹, but a global poll shows that one in four people, most of them young, believe a woman's place is in the home.

尽管女性执政、从商，且构成全世界约一半的劳动力，但一项全球调查显示，四分之一的人认为女人应该待在家里，而且持此观点的大多是年轻人。

Susan, a 36-year-old maid from the Philippines, works at her employer's house in Singapore April 29, 2008.

The survey of over 24,000 adults in 23 countries, conducted by Reuters/Ipsos and released on the eve of（在……前夜） International Women's Day, showed that people from India (54 percent), Turkey (52 percent), Japan (48 percent), China, Russia, Hungary (34 percent each) and South Korea (33 percent) were most likely to agree that women should not work.

And, perhaps surprisingly, people aged² between 18 and 34 years are most likely to hold that view, not those from the older, and more traditional, generation.

However, the majority, or 74 percent, of those polled（投票） believe a woman's place is certainly not at home.

"Over the past century, women, collectively（共同地，全体地） , have made great gains not only in terms of（依据，按照） societal participation³ - from politics to the workplace to sports and the media and to intellectual pursuit - but there are still barriers to many," said John Wright, senior vice⁴ president of market research company Ipsos.

"This poll has a fundamental（基本的，根本的） expression embraced by a full majority that women, individually or otherwise, should have the ability to choose to do what and where they believe they can make their greatest contribution," he said.

In countries where most people believed women should stay at home, or where the majority held the opposite view（相反的观点） , there was little difference between the sexes, the survey showed. For example, in India, the country where more than half of those polled said women should stay home, an almost equal number of men and women held this view.

The following results table from the survey conducted between November and January begins with the countries where citizens are most likely to agree that "a women's place is in the home." All figures are percentages.

"A woman's place is in the home"