A Summary of the TED Talk “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders” by Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Kara Sandberg (born August 28, 1969) is an American business executive, billionaire, and philanthropist. Sandberg serves as chief operating officer (COO) of Meta Platforms, she has an extensive career and lots of experience in the industry.
This TED talk was made in 2010 and more than a decade and over three million views later, it is still one of the most influential speeches in the voice of women and career you’ll find out there. This speech by Sheryl Sandberg is an all-time favorite of mine because it leaves the idea of blaming men or the industry and instead focuses on the crux of the matter. Here’s my take on it.
The number of leading women is actually very little and it was stated as that there were only 13% of women in parliament and 15-16 percent of women at the top cooperate sector at the time and what was even more surprising is that these numbers have not moved since 2002. Solutions were given on how to change these numbers and help women locate and utilize opportunities.
Firstly, we need to keep women in the workforce. Women keep dropping out of the workforce and putting their career behind everything else. We know that being a career woman isn’t something everyone wants. But for women who want that, they should learn not to underestimate themselves in the workplace. And should start negotiating for themselves to build confidence in the workplace.
Secondly, make sure you have a good partner. A partner who is supportive and won’t try to get in the way of your career, because of societal norms. Being a woman in an organization is hard enough. You don’t need someone to make things harder for you at home.
Lastly, don’t leave before you leave. This may sound confusing but many women most often mentally leave a job before physically leaving. When women are faced with the thoughts of having children, they subconsciously begin to make room for a child even when they’re not married yet or pregnant even. They begin to lean back and once they do, they do not see and utilize opportunities as often as they usually did. Women should decide to be consistent until the very day you leave your job, whether for a child or not.
We should all work hard in our generation and make the right sacrifices so that our children can live in a better world. A better world would be one run equally by hard working men and women in top positions in companies and industries.