Women in Leadership

It is evident that women are not equally represented in the upper leadership ranks of the corporate, political, and non-profit worlds. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, suggests that this is due to three reasons, which I agree with.

First of all, women don’t ‘sit at the table’. This infers that women underestimate their abilities compared to men. Secondly, women need to ‘make their partner a real partner’. This means that all of the household responsibilities should not fall on the woman of the house. These responsibilities need to be equated so that women have the chance to work outside of the home and be successful in it. Lastly, women shouldn’t ‘make decisions too far in advance’. Too many times, women plan out their lives and worry about how children will fit into them. Women feel the need to make room and decide too far in advance what this decision will be. Sandberg suggests that women should ‘keep their foot on the gas pedal until the decision needs to be made’.

Sandberg put the responsibility on the women. I think that this is reasonable.  In this modern society, women in the workforce are accepted. There is no reason that a woman shouldn’t be able to attain upper leadership positions. Although it is evident that there is inequality in upper leadership, I don’t think that there is an injustice because these opportunities are available to everyone. It depends on each person’s priorities as to whether they will take advantage of these opportunities. I think that the inequality of men to women in upper leadership positions is due to women’s priorities. A lot of women fear that if they have a child and a full time job, the child will be raised by someone else and the mother will miss important years of their child’s life that they won’t ever get to experience again.

I think that the best solution to this problem is finding a work environment that allows flex time. I think this is most important for a working mother so that she can be involved in her child’s life helping at school functions and being present at sporting events. On-site child care would definitely be an advantage as well. This would make the mother feel like she is still a large part of her child’s life because she can check on them any time.

I can relate to one cause of the lack of women in upper leadership positions. Specifically, I make decisions too far in advance. Lately, I’ve been contemplating getting my MBA a couple years after graduation. However, the more I think about it, the more I’m not sure that the benefits will outweigh the costs. Basically, I’m unsure that I will get full use of the MBA because I fully intend on having a family and I think that I would want to be in a less demanding position or exit the workforce while I raise children.

All in all, I think that women have the abilities and opportunities to attain upper leadership status. I think it all comes down to each individual’s priorities.