Women with low literacy suffer disproportionately more than men, encountering more difficulties in finding a well-paying job and being twice as likely to end up in the group of lowest wage earners, a study released on Wednesday said.

Analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) found women at all levels of literacy tend to earn less than men, but it's at the lowest literacy levels that the wage gap between genders is most striking.

Women with low literacy are twice as likely as men at the same skill level to be among the lowest earners, bringing in $300 a week or less, the report said.

"Because women start off so low in terms of wages, having higher literacy and more skills really makes a big difference," said Kevin Miller, a senior research associate at IWPR and co-author of the study.

Women need to go further in their training and education level to earn the same as men, Miller said.

The analysis was based on 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy surveys, the most recent data available, and focused on reading skills, not writing and numeric literacy. That data was collected from a nationally representative sample of 19,714 people aged 16 and older, living in households or prisons.

Data showed about one-third of American adults have low literacy levels, and more than 36 percent of men and 33 percent of women fall into that category, the institute said.

 周三发布的一项研究称，文化程度低的女性比那些文化程度低的男性吃的亏更大，在寻求高薪工作的过程中会遇到更多困难，而且进入最低收入阶层的几率是男性的两倍。

女性政策研究所分析发现，各个文化层次的女性收入一般都比相同文化程度的男性要低，在文化水平最低的人群中，男女收入差距最大。

报告称，文化程度低的女性成为最低收入者（每周工资不超过300美元）的几率是同一文化水平的男性的两倍。

该机构高级助理研究员、本研究的共同作者凯文?米勒说，“因为女性工资的起点太低，提高文化水平和技能确实有重大意义。”

米勒称，要和男性挣得一样多，女性需要进一步的培训和教育。

这份基于现有的最新数据——2003年国家成人读写能力评估调查的分析报告更注重阅读技能而非写作和算术能力。该报告收集了来自全国具有代表性的1.97万人的数据，这些人都年满16岁，有住在家中的，也有坐牢的。

数据显示，约三分之一的美国成年人文化程度低。该研究所称，文化程度低的男性占男性总数的36%以上，女性占33%。

Vocabulary:

disproportionately: 不成比例地；太大或太小；不相称地

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