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Sheryl Sandberg Is Taking a Hatchet to the Glass Ceiling

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A well-deserved and much needed hatchet, I might add. Until recently, I was only peripherally aware of Sheryl Sandberg.  I knew she was facebook's COO, and I was glad - there are so few women in truly senior jobs - but that was about it.  Then last week a friend sent me this NYT article about her.  I was inspired and intrigued - and then I watched a TED talk Sheryl gave on why there are so few women in senior leadership positions...and now I'm a huge fan.

In case you don't know this, the world is still very far from being a level playing field when it comes to women at work.  Women still make 77¢ for every $1.00 men make -- doing the same job.  Only 2% of Fortune 500 companies are CEO'd by women.  And it's not that we're worse at being leaders: research shows that we're actually better at growing successful companies.

I love that Sheryl Sandberg is so successful - and I love that she wants to help other women be successful, too.  In an era when lots of women cringe at the word "feminist," Sheryl is an avowed feminist.  I love it.

One of the things I find most appealing about Ms. Sandberg is her balanced assessment of why women haven't yet achieved parity in the workplace.  In her TED talk, for example, she talks both about things women do that hold us back and about the societal attitudes and assumptions that still work against us.

For instance, she talks about women being too self-effacing, or moderating our career ambitions years before we have  children, not because we want to, but  because we believe we must. And at the same time, she references research that's been done showing that if you give two groups of people a bio of an ambitious, successful person, and tell one group the bio is for "Heidi" and the other the bio is for "Howard" -- the people who think it's a guy will rate him as more likeable, more interesting, and a better boss! (Think about Hilary Clinton.)

In other words, Ms. Sandberg doesn't pretend that what's holding us back is either entirely within us, or entirely outside us.  She also seems to be putting her (considerable) money where her mouth is; she creates opportunities for women to talk and think together about how to succeed (including a monthly dinner at her home, where she invites world-level successful women from business, government and academia to speak), and supports a wide variety of non-profit and charitable organizations in support of women and families.

As I was watching Sheryl's TED talk, I was struck by her warmth, intelligence, practically and humor. I thought about how the world has changed since I started working almost 40 years ago.  And I thought, "We're going to get there: a world where gender, race, and background are less important than intelligence, competence, vision and results." And I want to do everything I can to help us make it there as quickly as possible.