It’s a man’s world according to top woman at Facebook
Mar 11, 2013, 8:07 AM | Updated: 8:43 am
First we have to look at why women aren't getting ahead, Sandberg said. Women's careers are being sabotaged by a surprising source: themselves. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
The most powerful woman at Facebook, Chief Operational Officer Sheryl Sandberg says men still run the world.
Sunday on 60 minutes, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg talked with correspondent Norah O’Donnell.
Despite that women get more college degrees than men for 30 years, they still only account for four percent CEO’s in America’s Fortune 500 companies.
First we have to look at why women aren’t getting ahead, Sandberg said. Women’s careers are being sabotaged by a surprising source.
Sandberg said there are so few women at the top because of women themselves.
“Women attribute their success to working hard, luck and help from other people.” Men on the other hand attribute their success to their own core skills.
Sandberg told O’Donnell that she attributes her own success to a lot of things, including luck and working hard – in addition to her core skills.
The conclusion she found at the end of her book – it’s not just men who hold women back, women do it to themselves by playing too safe at work, worrying about their likeability and turn down opportunities in anticipation of having a family.
“They start leaning back,” she said. “I’m busy, I want to have a child someday, I couldn’t possibly take on any more. Or I’m still learning at my current job. I’ve never had a man say that to me.”
The data is clear, she said: When it comes to ambition to lead, men and boys outnumber women.
Some of the criticism of Sandberg’s book, and advice, has been because she’s a top executive with a lot of money to deal with little things like kids, and keeping a household running. But even her money doesn’t erase that nagging guilty feeling many women have when they often have to chose between having a great career, or having a great family.
“I compare myself to the women who are at home mothers with their kids. I think I’m a little intimidated, to be totally honest. I think because we all feel a little bit insecure about our own choices we get pitted against each other,” said Sandberg.
O’Donnell asked Sandberg if most women feel guilty about the choices they’ve made, and that she felt so guilty – she wrote a book about it.
According to a 2011 study by the American Psychological Association of over 1,300 moms, the happiest moms are, perhaps unsurprisingly, those who work part-time.
