Here is the final one.
What stops women from climbing up the corporate ladder?The majority of human societies have long been patriarchal ones, where men have higher social status and enjoy more power or resources than women. Although the gender inequities have largely been removed over the past decades, thanks to flourishing feminism, there are still plenty of areas to improve. For instance, whereas women account for nearly half of human population, the ratios of female leaders in most fields are way below 50%.
The lack of female leaders could be attributed to many different factors. Sometimes, however, it is women’s own mindsets that constrain them from shattering a glass ceiling. Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, pointed out several self-refrained attitudes which are strongly held, either consciously or unconsciously, by today’s women. Chances are these outdated ways of thinking stem from our long history of patriarchy.
In the old days, men were breadwinners, and women were homemakers. Today dual income families are commonplace, but when it comes to career achievements, human cultures still put a lot more pressure on men than women. A man who is successful in his career is generally admired and respected, no matter how messy his family life could be, and a woman usually shares more of housework and plays a bigger role in parenting than her spouse. On the flipside, a house husband, when introducing himself in public, might simply get rolling eyes, and a woman’s success in workplace could just hurt her likability. Hence men are a lot more aggressive at work, and women are more likely to drop out of workforce for family reasons. What makes it even worse is women tend to think too early ahead and stop pursuing career achievements long before it is really needed for the sake of their families.
A world with more female leaders would bring the globe more benefits and lead to better well-being, Sheryl believed. She encouraged women to do away with these unnecessary self-imposed limitations, if they have the ambition to work their ways up to the top.