Gender parity in the workforce has lost ground over the past couple of years, particularly for women of color, highlighting the need for increased efforts beyond the C-suite, former Meta executive Sheryl Sandberg said during an appearance at Dreamforce on Wednesday.
Sandberg stepped down from Meta's board earlier this year and was previously the company's chief operating officer for 14 years, but she's also known for launching the "lean in" movement over a decade ago about women's experiences in corporations.
On Tuesday, her organization LeanIn.org published a report with McKinsey on the progress, or lack of progress, on gender parity over the past decade. One of the takeaways: It's going to take nearly five more decades to reach parity.
"The numbers went way up in 2021 and 2022 because we had a moment of racial reckoning and a moment where everyone was paying attention to this, and now we've kind of lost that focus," Sandberg said.
One of the takeaways from the report was that the biggest obstacle isn't even the glass ceiling, a metaphor that alludes to the difficulty women often face trying to land executive positions.
Rather, one of the biggest barriers for women is a "broken rung" lower on the corporate ladder when they go for their first promotion.
"That first promotion to manager is the place we lose the most ground," Sandberg said. "Every study has shown that men get hired and promoted based on potential, and women get hired and promoted based on something they've already done and proven. That's why that first promotion for manager is harder for women and even harder for women of color."
Improving the educational pipeline, particularly when girls are young, is another area that needs focus, she said.
Combatting bias is another.
"We need to educate on these biases," Sandberg said. And "we need to have the 'bias interrupters.' Those can be in the moment and later."
A "bias interrupter" can be any action taken to address biased behavior, whether intentional or not.
