On the playground, little girls get called bossy. In business, women are told they're being too aggressive.
But how often are boys or men called bossy or aggressive? Probably not as often, and that's a problem, according to Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
The author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Knopf, March 2013) and founder of LeanIn.org, Sandberg spoke this morning at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Minneapolis. She was on a panel with Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., and Telle Whitney, president and chief executive of the Anita Borg Institute.
From little girls on the playground to women in the workplace, Sandberg said there is a gender bias that women "aren't meant to lead."
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Sandberg said more business owners and leaders need to be aware of that bias and should focus on hiring more women in leadership roles. She also said there should be more women in the field of computer science, an area that has traditionally been dominated by men.
"That little girl [on the playground] isn't being bossy," Sandberg said. "That little girl has executive leadership skills."
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