Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders ! By Sheryl Sandberg

Sandberg’s book analyzes the many biases between women and men in positions of leadership in the workplace as well as her view on “feminism” in the corporate world. She claims “women hold themselves back unintentionally in their careers” by not taking part in career advancement opportunities that may arise in addition to hesitance and worry of repercussions which might occur for making requests or demands of their superiors. Sandberg believes that the reason for this is because women are living up to the stereotypes as “caregivers, sensitive and communal” while men are portrayed to be providers, driven and decisive”. The portrayals

In 2010, Sheryl Sandberg gave a TED Talk entitled “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders.” Sandberg,the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and the ex-vice president for Google’s Global Online Sales and Operations and chief of staff for the Secretary of the Treasury, uses her current position as a powerful working woman, as well as a strict logical structure and pathetic examples, to argue that women should be more aggressive in professional arenas.

The Ted talk I listened to first was “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders” by Sheryl Sandberg (http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders#t-647962). In the talk, Sheryl Sandberg sums up her experiences of inequality between men and women in various scenarios. She offers a different perspective to this topic by relating mindset to not only the way women and men carry themselves but also to the way they perceive each other. A significant part of the talk was when she said “...success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women” which seems to be common in a business setting. For instance, men are often held on a pedestal for their achievements. Women, on the other hand, are more likelier to develop a negative image for their achievements.

In modern america sexism is slowly diteriating, but it has not complitly disappeared. Women have worked hard to become astronaut, Ceos, presidentsdoctors and more, but even with these accomplishments women are still discriminated against. Women face a variety of stereotypes in the work place that prevent them from progress, some company's really think that women don't need equal pay because they are not the head of the house hold and their husbands paycheck should do the job. Other business corporations believe that women can not committed to a job because they are the primary caregiver of their children which causes companies to lose money every time there is an emergency. "The paradox is that the world of rigid and hierarchical sex roles

What is it going to take for people to be equal in this world? What is the point of putting men on such a high pedestal when they are no different than women? Why are women perceived as the “weaker” gender? All of these are questions that people have and want answers to. Its’ safe to say that Werhane, Posig, Gundry, Ofstein, and Powell were spot on when they mentioned that we live in a male dominated world. Anything that has to do with power is generally associated with a male figure. These instant thoughts that women are less likely to own a business, or are more likely to live in poverty need to come to an end.

Sheryl Sandberg’s argument is that women are capable of reaching the same career heights that men are. We are held back by stereotypes, gender bias, fear, and the assumption that if we choose to have a career, we can’t have a fulfilling home life. Traditionally, women should seek a good husband first, and if we can manage to fit in a bit of a career on the side, good for us. Ms. Sandberg points out that girls are taught from a young age that society doesn’t favor women who are bossy, assertive, and ambitious; attributes that are nurtured in boys right from the start, and which cultivate leadership skills. Since we are taught to be sensitive and be “ladylike,” the fear of “not being liked...making the wrong choice...overreaching...failing” tends

How would you feel if you studied hard for the duration of your educational life and that when you entered the work force, your future become full of rejections? And this was all due to your sex? Women today have been restricted in progressing in society due to their stereotypical ‘inabilities’ and have been struggling to climb the corporate ladder. This was due to: stereotypes, competition for jobs and their different perspectives. In result of this, women in today’s society deserve the opportunities of leadership positions that they are worthy for to give a wider spectrum to the work force.

“Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders” by Sheryl Sandberg talks about the inequality in job profession for women. The different in percentage is not even close to being half. There are only 15 or 16% women that are CEO’s while men hold the rest. Women don’t reach for opportunities as much as men do. When a man succeeds, “they arrtibute their success to themselves, when a women succeeds, “they attribute their success to other external factors” because they believe they got to where they got by the help of someone else and not their own ability/effort (Sandberg).

The first idea that interest me is the concept of vestige of prejudice because organizations do not promote women into leadership roles. The vestige of prejudice describes that men have advantage of higher wages and promotions. The author’s main point is that society has not change the perception of women in society. It is not fair that women earn less than men because all people regardless of their social status, must have the same opportunities in terms of work. Based on a research study “women earned about 44% less than men, average over the entire period from 1983 to 2000” (Eagly and Carli, n.d). In addition, promotions are slower for women than men with equal qualifications. The vestige of prejudice is relevant to women and leadership,

Sexual and gender discrimination is still present in the United States and other developed countries. Women often earn less, have more trouble obtaining high-level positions, and are threatened and harassed much more regularly than their male peers, and it needs to be brought to an end. Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American technology executive, activist, and author, and as of September 2014, she is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. As Sandberg discusses in her book, Lean In : Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, “Real change will come when powerful women are less of an exception. It is easy to dislike senior women because there are so few. If women held 50 percent of the top jobs, it would just not be possible to dislike that many people” (32). If people were not so indifferent towards the idea of women pursuing positions of authority, we would have fewer men making decisions for women, decisions on issues that they do not fully understand because they have not had to experience these issues from a woman’s perspective. Examples of women’s issues that need to be taken into consideration include their education offerings and pay compared to men’s. It is quite often that men will overlook these issue because they do not have to struggle with them firsthand. Conversely, there are women who believe they don’t need feminism. Often enough though, this is because these women do not understand the true meaning of feminism and associate it with being victimized and man-hating.

Never before had I experienced sexual discrimination in the workplace, or seen an real “boys club” in place. When I left MUTI the only women left were ones doing the office work. As for upper management all the women that had once held high positions had left or to hear them say had been pushed out. I have always believed that in today’s world women and men were actually on a more equal playing field. I held the illusion that business women of the past had already cleared the way for this century of women. That by hard work and proving yourself that was enough to be able to put one on the path of having it all-a career and a family. It has been said that the first time in U.S. history, there is almost more women than men currently employed. This may be true, but there is only a selected few like Sheryl Sandberg who is the chief operating officer of Facebook, or the current CEO of PesiCo Indra Nooyi. These women are examples of a very elite group of women. Truth be told “Nine percent of S&P 500 companies do not have any female directors. A mere 21 of the Fortune 500 chief executives are women.” (quote web page). These numbers alone should make people wonder what is really going on. How can women be such a large part of the college graduating classes, but only such a small amount are making it to

Over the years, a great deal of time, and research has been dedicate to the study of leadership. Even with extensive data on the topic, many still disagree on what leadership really means. Hence, leadership is a word that has many different meanings and different researched theories associated with it. On a basic level, leadership involves having and establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with followers, respecting followers, and leading an organization with excellence while ensuring that everyone is part of the team. Leadership is also a method by which a leader uses his or her influence towards getting a group of followers to take ownership or buy into a vision.

Many citizens believe “a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, not in their capacity as a leader” (“Statistics from Miss Representation”). Many cases showcasing this ridiculous statement have been brought to light. In one instance, a large woman was rejected a job as a bus driver because she was thought as being incapable of being up to par (Rhode). The company dubbed the woman as being “unfit” and unable to evacuate a bus if needed (Rhode). However, the woman was not tested in any way and was simply tossed aside. In addition to being misinterpreted, women are also harshly judged by employers and male co-workers alike. The simple fact is, “employers think [women] are not as talented as men” (“Women Lack the Right Stuff”). It seems that the majority of men in the workforce believe women are not aggressive enough to be leaders within their respected fields (“Women Lack the Right Stuff”). This causes employers to lean heavily toward men while searching for employees to fill positions. However, one absolute truth about this world is that everyone is different. To categorize all women as having the exact same qualities is completely absurd and sexist. To say that all men are capable of being leaders and women are not is an incorrect judgment of human qualities. Unfortunately, those strongly connected to the workforce have developed this mindset. This in turn causes mistreatment of our women.

Prior to attending the Business Internship course, my knowledge and understanding on successful business leaders was very limited. Although I had heard of countless success stories in business, I had never actually understood what it took to achieve such measures of success. However, it wasn’t until we had the privilege of hearing from four different business magnates in weeks 6 -9. Each of the business leaders gave an hour’s seminar and which was aimed at providing insights into their personal lives, working experiences and the core essence of 21st century business leadership.

In class, so far, we have discussed many different topics about leadership. One being different leadership theories. The one that I feel most represents the leader I want to be in the future is servant leadership. When we discussed servant leadership it was defined as this leadership model is based on the leader and the followers wanting to serve others. Basically, this means the servant leader you put your focus on the needs of others before your own. The followers goal is to serve clients and the leader’s goal is to serve the employee and implement the organization mission statement. The leader supports other employees by noticing their goals and provide the proper support to help them reach those goals. This