Help with determining meaning in long sentences

[OoTmaster]

I was reading an article on NHK easy news. Namely this one:

NEWS WEB EASY|男性と女性の差が小さい国のランキング　日本は１１４番

I understand most of the content here I just need a bit of assistance seeing if I understand a section that seems to be a very long sentence of reasons for Japan's ranking.

"政治家の女性が少すくなくて、男性と女性で収入が違ちがうため、政治と経済で男性と女性の差は大きいままです。"
I'm understanding it roughly translated as, "There are very few female politicians, affecting the difference in income between men and women, in politics and business the difference between men and women continues to be too big." From the context given this sentence is in regard to Japan.

I think my understanding of this is right but it somehow seems wrong to me. If I'm wrong could someone help me correct my misunderstanding. Most specifically how the thought process flows from one segment to another.

 

[lanthas]

The translation is wrong, but not by much. The first two clauses (女性が少くない and 収入が違がう) are not in a cause-and-effect relationship, but are separate items that both belong to the ため.

 

[OoTmaster]

So are they both effected by the last clause? "There are very few female politicians, and difference in income between men and women, (both are the effect) in politics and business the difference between men and women continues to be too big." Or am I not understanding the function of ため here?

 

[lanthas]

It's the other way around. ため works like から in this case: <cause>ため、<effect>.

 

[Mike Cash]

{ [政治家の女性が少なくて] 、[ <男性と女性で> 収入 が 違う] } ため、[ < 政治と経済で > <男性と女性の差 > ] は [大きいまま] です。

X ため、Y は 大きいままです

差は大きいままです

なんの差？
男性と女性の差

どう言うところでの差？
政治と経済での差

政治と経済での男女の差が大きいのままはなぜ？
政治家の女性は少ないためです。そして、男女の収入が違うためです。

Work it that way and see what you get.

 

[OoTmaster]

So more like, "Because there are few female politicians and income between men and women in politics and business are different, the difference between men and women continues to be too big."

 

[lanthas]

You got it. Note however that the article only describes the difference as "big", not "too big."

 

[OoTmaster]

Ah yes. I think that was a preference of mine in my native language, not me translating it from the article. Thanks for pointing that out. And thank you both for all of your help.

 

[Mike Cash]

Since Japan ranked 114th, the "too" is implicitly justified.

 

[Toritoribe]

So more like, "Because there are few female politicians and income between men and women in politics and business are different, the difference between men and women continues to be too big."

As Mike-san explained, "there are few female politicians" is the cause of the difference in politics, and "income between men and women are different" is the cause of the difference in finances. It's not talking about "income in politics".

 

[OoTmaster]

So it's simply income between men and women being different it's talking about then not in any particular section then? I hadn't noticed that was part of what Mike was explaining. Maybe the structure of the sentence is beyond what I've studied. I'm going to write this sentence down and go over it a few times just to make sure I understand what it means.

 

[Toritoribe]

So it's simply income between men and women being different it's talking about then not in any particular section then?

That's right. Indeed it's possible to interpret that 収入 in the second clause refers to "income in politics" in 政治家の女性が少なくて、男性と女性で収入が違うため, but the main clause is talking about the difference between men and women in politics and finances, not the difference between men and women in finances in politics, so 収入 is "income in general" in this case.

 

[Mike Cash]

Wasn't there some accompanying graphic that would have helped with clarifying this?

 

[OoTmaster]

Wasn't there some accompanying graphic that would have helped with clarifying this?

There was. I want to make sure I understand why it means what it does by just reading. Visual aids can help with the "what" but not the "why". I'm all about the "why" when it comes to learning a language. I feel it helps more with learning a language if you understand a language in the context of itself more than within the context of your own language.

 

[OoTmaster]

I noticed that the original sentence I posted had copied some of the furigana from the article as well. I thought it might be a bit confusing if someone was trying to learn from it. Here's the sentence with the furigana removed.

政治家の女性が少なくて、男性と女性で収入が違うため、政治と経済で男性と女性の差は大きいままです。