Sheryl Sandberg for the Success of All Women
Facebook’s COO book encourages women to stand for themselves in the workforce and long for leadership positions
March, 2016
“Why we have too few women leaders?” That was the leading question of Sheryl Sandberg TedTalk during the TEDWomen Conference in Washington D.C., in December 7th, 2010. The Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer showed to the public data that visualize how nowadays women still occupy a very small number of leadership positions in major corporations and nations’ governments - about 20%. For the executive, the problem is that women are giving up their jobs outside home. Three years after her speech, Sandberg published her book Lean in: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.
During the TEDWomen Talk, the author gave three messages - presented in chapters of the book - for women who wish to stand out in their careers. Or simply to stay in the workforce and conciliate it with marriage and maternity: “number one, sit at the table; two, make your partner a real partner; and three, don’t leave before you leave.” For Sheryl Sandberg, first women have to stop to underestimate themselves and stand out, negotiate for themselves and recognize their own success. “No one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side, not at the table, and no one gets the promotion if they don’t think they deserve their success or they don’t even understand their own success”, declared Sandberg at TEDWomen.
One of the examples highlighted by Sandberg both in the lecture and in the book is the study case of the successful Heidi Roizen. In 2003, a professor from Columbia University and other from NYU set up an experiment with their students to study the perceptions of men and women in workplace. Half of the students read Heidi’s curriculum and the other half read the same with only a difference: they changed the name for Howard. Then the professors did a survey for the students give their opinions about Heidi and Howard. According to Sandberg, both were classified as equally competent (...). But, although the students respected equally Heidi and Howard, Howard looked like a work colleage more pleasant. Heidi, in the other end, was seen as selfish and wasn’t “the kind of person you would hire or whom you would like to work with’”. The same profile with only one difference - the sex - generated profoundly different opinions about the same person. In other words, men in general not only seek for more opportunities than women, they are more considered to the same jobs than women.
As regards to “make your partner a real partner”, is an advice for all women who want to conciliate career and family. Studies show that, in general, when a woman and her life partner work outside home, she does twice more the housework than him, and she takes three times more responsibility for childcare. “Who do you think will have to quit the job when it needs to be more at home?”, questione Sandberg to the conference public. The author admits that the job market is not for all women, or even for all men. There is nothing wrong with a person's preference for household chores and parenting while the life partner works out the house. But it is also not wrong to seek to reconcile professional success and personal fulfillment.
And point three, “don’t leave before you leave” concerns specifically women who are thinking of leaving the job on account of motherhood before becoming pregnant or even before they find a partner. “What happens once you start kind of quietly leaning back?” Sheryl Sandberg explains, “once you have a child at home, your job better be really good to go back because it’s hard to leave that kid at home. Your job needs to be challenging. It needs to be rewarding. You need to feel like you’re making a difference. And if two years ago you didn’t take a promotion and some guy next to you did, if three years ago you stopped looking for new opportunities, you're gonna be bored because you should have kept your foot on the gas pedal.”
The focus of the book and Lean In movement initiated by Sandberg is for women who want to stay in the job market. But in her own personal and family history, there are examples of women who made different choices for their families and for themselves.
Sandberg Women
Sheryl Sandberg was born on August 28, 1969 in Washington, to a family of Jewish origin, the oldest of three children, with a sister in the middle and a younger brother. She has a degree in Business from Harvard University, is the mother of a boy and a girl and widow of SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg (1967-2015).
Sheryl’s maternal grandmother, born to a poor family in the suburb of New York, overcame the financial crisis of the 1930s and the culture of the time, not only finishing high school but also taking an university degree. She stopped working when she married, but took over when her husband's shop went through trouble times. “She brought her business sense back in her forties”, writes Sandberg. In turn, her mother even started her doctorate in French literature, married, and when she became pregnant with Sheryl, she left the course. “It was considered a sign of weakness that a husband needed the help of his wife to support the Family”, says the author.
Despite growing up in a traditional home, her parents had the same expectations for Sheryl and her siblings. “I was raised with the idea that the girls could do everything the boys did and that all the professional paths were open for me”, she completes. Likewise, Sandberg states that she wants her son to have the choice to contribute completely to the job market or at home, and her daughter to have the choice not only to exceed but to be admired for her accomplishments.
Leaning In in Brazil
The Lean In Foundation was created by Sheryl Sandberg in 2010 focus on encouraging all women to achieve their ambitions. In Brazil, this movement is also present, especially in the corporate enviroments. “Lean In encourages people from all over the world to form circles through which they can interact, in this case, women. Not that the movement is restricted to women, but they are the target”, explains spokeswoman of Lean In Brazil Ana Carolina Garcia, biologist and employee of the Kraft Heinz Company in São Paulo.
The circles are small groups that meet regularly, on the Internet or in person, “which is best suited to strengthen the relationship between people and gain trust," says Ana Carolina. Anyone can create or join a circle, from access to the Lean In site, which also offers support material - in addition to Sheryl Sandberg's book. Once formed, the circles schedule the meetings, usually in corporate environments or even within the companies themselves. As in Brazil, there is not yet an official Lean In headquarters "that gives specific support to a culture in Latin America, for example, then the themes addressed in Brazil are the same in the Lean In global movement: how women can achieve growth in a corporate environment? How do you deal with the salary issue? How do you learn to impose yourself without fear? Where are you going wrong, being a woman, giving up certain things that should not be, in relation to a man? How do you impose yourself in top management positions, since we know that the number of women in these positions is much lower? How can you cope with pregnancy and household demands by being a woman in a corporate environment?”.
To learn more or start a group connected to Lean In Brazil, send an email to leaninbrasil@gmail.com or visit their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/leaninbrasil.
