Facebook COO: women should 'lean in'

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is calling on Chinese women to step up and "sit at the table" if they want successful careers and break free from their self-limitations.

In her rallying cry to Chinese women, she reminds them of a famous Chinese proverb that says "women hold up half the sky," as well as advises them to grab opportunities and not be afraid to lead.

"I want every woman to have her own choices. I just don't want women to limit themselves unnecessarily," Sandberg said in an exclusive TV interview with Xinhua.

"If we want to live in a world overwhelmingly run by men, then it's fine. But I don't want to live in that world," she said.

While visiting China to promote her new book "Lean In," Sandberg said women can often sabotage their success by limiting their own potential or not taking advantage of opportunities.

Nearly 130,000 copies of the book's Chinese version have been sold in China since it was published in July, according to the CITIC Press Corporation, which published the book. The Chinese version of the book is now on its sixth print run.

Sandberg said she believes China's strong economic growth should be partly attributed to the high rate of female participation in the workforce.

"You look at the economic growth of China, which is one of the wonders of the world. In order for it to continue, women will have to be fully invested in the workforce here," she said.

But active participation by women in the workforce hasn't resulted in a high percentage of female leaders. China's ranking on the World Economic Forum's gender equality index fell to 69th last year from 57th in 2008.

Sandberg noted the "leadership ambition gap" between men and women, adding that people are so accustomed to having men as leaders that women are often plagued by self-doubt before they can even rise to leadership.

In films, female leaders' personal lives are often in a mess. Sandberg said such stereotypes are a problem because they demean female leaders.

She said women are reluctant to lead partly because leadership is always negatively correlated with likability.

Admitting she has been called "bossy" her entire life, she said the word is often used discriminatively against women, especially young girls, adding that she hopes to stamp out such usage of the word.

"Men can so easily be competent and liked, and be leaders and be liked," Sandberg said.

"But everywhere in the world, as women get more successful, it's more mixed. They are sometimes less attractive for marriage," she added.

Her theory could explain the Chinese phenomenon of so-called "leftover women," a phrase coined to describe women who have successful careers but have difficulty finding suitable partners for marriage.

Although she has been described as one of the most successful and influential women in the world, Sandberg said she wasn't always confident enough to lead.

She recalled how years ago, when she was picked as the most likely to succeed in her high school, her first reaction was to have her friend to pull her name off from the list because she felt "embarrassed."

Another challenge many career women face is pregnancy.

Sometimes women start preparing for pregnancy years before they actually conceive and often turn down good job opportunities as a result.

"I think that is a mistake. It's fine to turn down job opportunities once you have a child. But turning it down years in advance holds women back," she said.

Sandberg - who served as vice president of global online sales and operations at Google - advises career women not to enter the workforce with the mindset of always looking for an exit.

"Sometimes if you lean in and become more senior, you actually have more flexibility and more control. There is a lot of reason to really lean in up until the point you have to make a hard choice," she said.

Sandberg was speaking from experience. She was asked to join Facebook in 2008 just seven months after the birth of her second child. Although she admitted that the timing wasn't perfect, she said she would've lost the job if she waited.

Adding that she doesn't expect every woman in the world to have a career like hers, she said, "I don't want them to hold themselves back."

In her book, Sandberg describes herself as a feminist, although she admitted that she would not have used the word to describe herself five years ago.

"It's not an easy word to use," she said.

"What matters is that we want equality and we understand how important equality is for all of us," she added.