The Future of Women in the Workforce

Forbes just published an article revealing that there are NO women on Facebook's board of Governors. As Facebook is going public and is one of the most cutting edge companies in the world, it is crazy to believe that they do not seem to value fair representation of women. One woman in particular has an issue with this: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Watch the TED Talk below for an eye-opening look into women's role in the workplace. It's only 15 minutes and well worth it!


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

Sandberg argues that in terms of representation of women in the workplace, regardless of industry, women's representation seems to be stagnating and even declining. There are more women then ever in University, but there are only 10-20%  women in leadership roles in all sectors. Sandberg takes issue with the fact that many women do not take enough pride in their own success. Women tend to downplay how smart and experienced they may be in their field. She also points out (with research to prove it) that the more successful a women is, the more unlikeable she is. However, the more successful a man is, the MORE likeable he is. Successful women are over and over portrayed as over-ambitious bitches, while successful men are seen as guys that you want to have over to watch Sunday football. I have definitely seen many examples of this over the past few years. Take the 2008 US democratic primaries. Hillary Clinton was constantly criticized for her clothing and business like image. She was portrayed by much of the media as being an aggressive, pushy and pretentious bitch whereas Sarah Palin was portrayed as a stupid but loveable "sex kitten". They even made pornos about her (remember Nailin' Palin?). Whether you agree with their politics or not, both of these women deserve to be celebrated for their success and not reduced to sexual objects.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather journalists say nothing at all about strong women like Palin then disrespect them and make a mockery of their success. We are kind of short on strong, positive role models right now. At least we have Sheryl Sandberg!