Sheryl Sandberg On Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders

I selected Sheryl Sandberg’s Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders from the TED.com series. What I loved most about her speech was the fact that I felt as if she was talking directly to me and understood my plight with work advancement for today’s career woman. She hit upon three points that resonated with me and made me reflect on my time in the workplace. She discussed the lack of women at the top of “C-level” jobs, the decisions women have to make between professional success and personal fulfillment, and how we as women don’t negotiate our salaries.

Sandberg stated that, “In the corporate sector, women at the top, C-level jobs, board seats -- tops out at 15, 16 percent. The numbers have not moved since 2002 and are going in the wrong direction.” The higher up I moved in my career, the less women I saw on the way up; even less, people of color. It was particularly difficult because I was working in a field that catered to an African American demographic, 18-34 years old, with a focus on women. It was challenging to articulate my view to a room full of men who did not live the lifestyle of the audience we were catering to. I had to be mindful of my tone and my passion. I would sit back and listen to the men get boisterous, sometimes standing up to get their viewpoint across. If my voice slightly cracked or my facial expression changed in any way, I was being emotional. It made moving up the ladder very difficult.  As I think back to those moments, it made me question if I ever wanted to hold a top-level job again.

Sandberg discussed professional success and personal fulfillment. I struggled with this throughout my career. I struggled with it to the point that I went to work sick many days and hardly went on vacation. For two years, I even put off a major surgical procedure that I needed, because I didn’t think I could “afford” to be out of work for six weeks. I put my professional success ahead of my own personal fulfillment and needs. She stated that a recent study in the U.S. showed that, “of married senior managers, two-thirds of the married men had children and only one-third of the married women had children.” I would overhear how some of the men expressed their views of women, who had become pregnant on the job, and it was not favorable. It echoed a time when I worked with Wendy Williams and remembering that she hardly took time off as well. She said she didn’t take time off because, “there’s always a young girl waiting in the wings to take your job.” Sadly, I believed that more than I believed in my own abilities.

Working in this type of environment made me bad at negotiating my own salary. I was conditioned to believe that as women we were suppose to take what was being given to us. Sandberg stated, “57 percent of men are negotiating their first salary, and (compared to) only 7 percent of women.” I once had a female employee whose contract was up for negotiation. Her day part was one of the strongest day parts at the radio station, yet her salary didn’t cover the cost of living for that particular city. I was horrified. She was being pressured to sign another contract that would lock her in for two more years with no salary increase. She came to me in tears. I encouraged her to fight for what she wanted. As talented as she was, she did not see her own value. In the end, she was victorious. I decided if I was going to be bad at negotiating for myself, I was not going to pass that mindset on to another woman asking me for advice. Sandberg showed me that I wasn’t alone with my feelings and shared the same conflicts as most career women. She also showed me that it is not wrong to fight for my own personal happiness as well as my professional happiness. As she says, I should be able to feel that I CAN “sit at the table” with my male counter parts and co-workers.