You've Got to Promote Women in Leadership | You've Got

Hi, I'm Sheryl Sandberg, and you've got to permit women in leadership. So we still live in a world divided by gender. 14% of the top jobs in corporate America are held by women, and that's been true for 10 years. And only 4% of the stay-at-home parents who work full-time in the home are men. And I think this is because we socialize our children so differently. A national retailer printed up t-shirts for kids, onesies for babies. The boys, smart like daddy. The girls, pretty like mommy. That wasn't in the 1950s, that was two years ago. And those same stereotypes perpetuate, and they hold us to what we are in the workforce. It's because of those stereotypes that when men get more successful, they're better liked by women and men. But as women get more successful, more powerful, attain leadership roles, they're less liked by women and men. So I wrote Lean In to try to offer women practical suggestions on how to sit at any table, how to achieve any goal they set for themselves, and how to offer men ideas on how to support women in their communities, in their families, and in their workplaces, so all of us together can work towards a more equal world. For women, sit at the table, which means believe in yourself. Know that just like the guy sitting next to you, you can learn on the job. You can reach for something you haven't done yet because you're going to be able to do it. Don't leave before you leave. I have seen so many women lean back years before they were going to actually have children to care for in anticipation of that responsibility. Once you have a child, you've got hard decisions to make. But the best way to put yourself in a great position until then is to lean forward. You might just get a promotion that gets you a more flexible job, or the promotion that gets you the money to pay for the child care you think you can't afford now. Make your partner a real partner. We are not going to get to equality in the workplace until we get to equality in the home. Marriages where couples share breadwinning and share housework and child care, those marriages are happier. Lower divorce, less depression, and importantly, more sex. This is worth it. Women have to believe in themselves, sit at the table, raise their hand, and also find the right and appropriate ways to state their own accomplishments so that they can get the rewards they deserve.