Sheryl Sandberg's scary stats on women at work reveal things need to change much faster

In an interview to Wall Street Journal, she said that women are being pushed back in workplaces as they are seen as aggressive and pushy. She also mentioned that women of colour have it worse, and suffer due to inefficient HR policies, according to a study. The study is based on a survey of 132 companies in corporate America.

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook. Picture Credit: forbes.com

The report also shows that women are under represented throughout the workplace hierarchy. Be it entry level or boardroom level. The disparity in fact increases as we go up the ladder of roles in the company place. The report suggests that only 18% of c-level employees are women, and while that is a shocking number, another statistics tells that only 3% is a woman of colour.

Many wonder if quitting jobs is a reason why women are such a small representation, the fact reveals that this is not true at all. Both men and women are noted to quite at the same rate and therefore this assumption is invalid.

You'd think that if not C-level, but managerial promotions are something that would show equal status for both men and women, but that is not true. For every 100 women who are promoted, 130 men also receive the same raise. This yet again leaves the equation imbalanced.

In fact, when women ask for more challenging projects, a raise or a promotion, they are reputed to be as "aggressive" and "bossy" by their colleagues and their seniors.

Statistics actually show that 62-63 percent of women said they are less likely to get a challenging project than their male colleagues. 56% of the women employees say their inputs are significant for an important project.

Sheryl Sandberg also mentions another startling fact that women are far less likely to be CEOs of the company.

While these figures show a shocking reality in the corporate world, especially in a developed country, women of other developing nations have to cope with even more.

Sheryl Sandberg also mentions another startling fact that women are far less likely to be CEOs of the company.

In India, before we move on to offices, literacy rate for females itself is much less than that of men - 65 percent vs 82 percent. According to a report by Insead Knowledge the work participation rate for Indian men is 51.9 per cent and female participation rate is 25.7 per cent. UNDP Gender Inequality Index also ranks India at 127 out of 146 countries. These number speak for themselves. We may be fighting the cause of gender discrimination, but there is still a long way to go for equality.

In 2014, there was a post that went viral, and you'll want to give this a read to understand why:

An FB post about women at work that went viral in 2014. - Part 1

An FB post about women at work that went viral in 2014. - Part 2

You may be in any part of the world, but your gender, sadly binds you to certain limitations. Limitations that we are fighting to overcome. Thankfully the needle is moving a tad.

Nikita Kulkarni, an advertising professional from Mumbai says, "I was one of the youngest on my team and I feel the work culture today is much better than what it was 5 years ago. Today, I feel my opinions and ideas are taken into consideration and not pushed away just because I'm a female. My worth doesn't depend on my gender, but on my work."

Image Courtesy: gsb.stanford.edu

Stats taken from Forbes.com