In a remarkable piece about perhaps the most powerful female technology executive, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker outlines how one woman thinks the problem with women in the workplace may not be men but actually other women. “Sexism in America,” Auletta credits to Sandberg and her female cohort, “is mainly a problem that women can fix by being more assertive.” As a case in point, Auletta writes:
Sandberg had described a talk that she gave at the Harvard Business School, after which all the women asked personal questions, such as how to find a mentor, and the men asked business questions, like how Facebook would deal with Google’s growing share of the cell-phone market. Telling this story, Sandberg was critical of what she considered to be “girl questions.”
In a TED speech on women, Sandberg said:
“women are not making it to the top. A hundred and ninety heads of state; nine are women. Of all the people in parliament in the world, thirteen per cent are women. In the corporate sector, women at the top—C-level jobs, board seats—tops out at fifteen, sixteen per cent.”
To solve this problem, Auletta says Sandberg proposed doing three things:
First, she said, women need to “sit at the table.” She said that fifty-seven per cent of men entering the workforce negotiate their salaries, but that only seven per cent of women do likewise. Second, at home, “make sure your partner is a real partner.” On average, she said, women do two-thirds of the housework and three-fourths of the child care. And, finally, “don’t leave before you leave.” When a woman starts thinking of having children, “she doesn’t raise her hand anymore. . . . She starts leaning back.” In other words, if women don’t get the job they want before they take a break to have children, they often don’t come back.
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—Photo via Businessweek
I have heard her speak and agree with her. While I agree with her in general, I am not convinced that as many women as men want what she wants for her life. More women than men are simply content to be a part-time worker and volunteer at their kids school and when they are older have a regular job close to home so they can be there at a predictable time. So, though I do agree with her, women who want that should go for whatever they want, not wait for it to come to them, realistically, there won’t… Read more »
It’s not centuries of oppressive systems which need to be drastically overturned. It’s that women finally need to start playing by the rules and act more like what men expect from us. We haven’t tried it before, but by gum it should do the trick!
Thanks Tom. I think what she says is part of the solution but just because a woman is saying it does not mean it is good for women. And, I think that is great – women should be able to hold whatever opinions they want and it is probably reflective of progress – just like Black Republicans (there was a time not too long ago when it was juts a given that if you were Black, you were a Dem.) Sure, women should be more assertive and how do they know it will be responded to positively? Some of the… Read more »
Ah, the housework canard. Factor in the extra hours a man spends in the office to support his family financially and, presto! Equal contributions to the overall household in terms of hours worked. Also, few “housework” studies count outside work.
As for women leaving to raise kids and staying out? So what, it’s a woman’s choice.
Sheryl Sandberg is simply a hyper-achieving corporate executive giving out advice to other potential hyper-achieving female executives. I wonder how children she has?
What does it matter how many children she has? By making that a point you’re saying her thoughts as a woman can’t be validated without the “full experience”, which in itself is subjetcive.