Sheryl Sandberg: Women In The Workforce

In today's society, we often see more women reaching top management and corporate positions, something that was not a norm in previous years. Laws, associations and the strong efforts of our culture and society have allowed for this to happen, however, there still exists a very strong glass ceiling for many women. After recently watching a video on TED.com about women in todays society, Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook identifies some interesting facts about women and their views about women in power. She first begins stating some facts about women in the work force, for example Sheryl and her research show that out of 190 heads of state, only 9 are women. 13% of parliament is represented by women, 15-16% of the head corporate is represented by women since 2002. Sheryl also indicated in her video and her audience that, surprisingly within the non profit world, where women are thought to have more of a dominance, only 20% percent dominate the non profit business. In her address to the crowd consisting of mostly women, she gave 3 tips on how women can advance their positions and take participating roles in business. The first tip talked about how women should "Sit at the table". This means women should take on a more aggressive stand in participating in leadership roles and asking questions that men also ask such as salary. Research shows that only 7% of women negotiate salary, when 57% of men negotiate. In addition, 2/3 of men in the corporate world had children, when only 1/3 of women in the corporate world have children which clearly indicates a limitation to women's desire of having children. Systematically, as Sheryl puts it, women underestimate their capabilities, which diminishes a women's desire to excel and become successful. one other tip she gives is to make sure the duties in a family home are equally shared and divided, therefore a women does not feel the strain of a marriage and her life goals. One last tips she points out is that women tend to think way too ahead about marriage and kids, even before they have boyfriends. Therefore this planning ahead that mot women do, does not allow them to take on leading roles or new tasks in fear of the new environment will interfere with marriage and kids. This a critical mistake women make because, then women feel limited or become quiet and never speak out to reach their goals. Sheryl stood out for me, because i feel strong about this topic and i feel that it is important to view women the same as we view men in the work force. There are too many idiots running this world, and quit honestly, women can be very rational more than guys can. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html