Sheryl Sandberg: Men Need To Mentor Women To Help Them In Their Careers

Facebook's chief operating officer says men need to take more women under their wing

Sheryl-Sandberg
Sheryl-Sandberg
(Image credit: REX)

Facebook's chief operating officer says men need to take more women under their wing

Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has said men need to help mentor women in order to get more women into corporate roles in the US.

While promoting her new book, 'Lean In', Sandberg said men need to take younger women under their wing, as currently 86 per cent of top corporate roles in the US go to men.

While promoting her book this week, she said: 'We want women to get into those jobs, but if we don't get older men to mentor and sponsor younger women, this will never happen.'

She added there were stereotypes and double standards which needed to be tackled in mentoring relationships, saying an older man and a younger woman seen together at dinner or drinks looks like a date, while two men discussing business together looks perfectly normal.

In a different, recent, TV interview with Reuters she said male executives also had to avoid perceiving a woman negatively as she starts moving up the ladder, for example by thinking twice before giving a woman a performance review which labels her as 'aggressive'.

'As a woman gets more successful, everyone likes her less. This completely changes how women are portrayed in the office. What I believe is if you can make people aware of this bias that we all face - men and women alike - we can change it', she said.

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