She reflected on her legacy as a woman in tech when she resigned as COO of Meta.
Many exceptional women and people from diverse background have risen through our ranks and become leaders, both in our company and in leadership roles elsewhere.
The reality for female leaders at the top of the tech industry has been more disappointing than Ms. Sandberg's praise of the progress of women at Meta. Silicon Valley is losing one of its most visible and outspoken female executives with her exit this fall.
A group of women at major tech companies who made keynote speeches, rose to the level of founders like Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg, and had a seat at the table at high-powered business gatherings like the Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, were part of the group that Ms Many of these women have left with their reputations in tatters.
Women have not made significant gains in recent years in the highest levels of tech giants where the corridors of power are still dominated by men. Tech exerts more influence in the global economy and in people's lives than the industry's record on female leadership would suggest.
The C.E.O. is the face of the company and the tech industry seems to want the face to be a white man.
According to a report by the law firm Fenwick & West, there was no change in the number of women in leadership at Silicon Valley's top 150 firms. The percentage of female chief executives of companies in the S&P 500 rose to 6 percent at the end of 2020 from 4% in the previous year.
Some women in positions of power have become targets of harassment. Franoise Brougher is a former chief operating officer ofPinterest. In recent years, female tech leaders have appeared to be hired to clean up someone else's mess, leading to the term "glass cliff" and a reference to the high risks of the roles.
Safra Catz of Oracle, Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices, and Sarah Friar of Nextdoor are all women who run public tech companies.
Both Microsoft andAlphabet have women in their executive suites, such as their chief financial officers, and those in charge of business units. There is a generation of tech start-ups led by women, such as Melanie Perkins at the design software maker Canva.
Women still face many challenges in the tech world. Incremental gains for women in leadership are shown in annual diversity reports. The majority of venture capital firms are male. There are stories about discrimination and harassment in Silicon Valley.
It will take a long time to get to parity if we stay at this current rate of progress. From here, we need a lot of change.
When risky start-ups were just beginning, the tech industry's unconscious biases were particularly strong. There are not many examples of what success looks like for women in the industry.
The largest tech companies have been led by men. David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded Hewlett-Packard in a Silicon Valley garage in 1939 and chip companies were led by men in the 1950s. Female leaders in Silicon Valley were rare in the 1990s, when Hewlett-Packard's CEO was named.
Carol Bartz, Yahoo's chief executive, was tapped to lead in the internet era. Women joined start-ups. Ms. Sandberg helped create a new type of female executive who was helping to professionalize start-ups founded by men when she left her job at Facebook. Last year, Facebook was changed to Meta.
"Mark made sure she was truly elevated in stature, because she was just a C.O.O.." She said that she and other women in tech used a template from Ms. Sandberg.
Ms. Sandberg's best-selling business book, "Lean In", encouraged women to more aggressively seek promotions and raises.
Ellen Pao, a venture capital investor who sued her employer for discrimination, highlighted the difficulties that women faced in tech. The high-profile trial showed the ills of Silicon Valley's boys club. Project include is a nonprofit that focuses on diversity and inclusion.
Tech companies haven't done much to improve their workplace despite the fact that more people now believe women when they speak up about discrimination.
She said that the metrics that are shared show little progress at the executive level.
Tech companies began releasing diversity reports in the wake of her trial. Many venture capital firms add women to their partnerships.
More women were named to executive jobs. Ursula Burns was promoted to Xerox's CEO in 2009. Ms. Rometty became IBM's chief executive the same year that Ms. Mayer became Yahoo's chief executive. Ms. Catz became co-chief executive at the company. Ms. Hood was the chief financial officer for Microsoft and Ms. Porat was the chief financial officer for GOOGLE.
Many of them had difficulty steering aging tech companies. Only Ms. Catz and Ms. Hood are still in their roles. The snail's pace of progress for women leaders in Silicon Valley is worse than disappointing according to Nicole Wong, a deputy chief technology officer for the Obama Administration. Tech leaders made commitments about racial and gender diversity last year.
Powerful men in Silicon Valley were accused of sexual harassment. A group of women created All Raise.
Scores of women joined corporate boards after California passed a law requiring public companies to have at least one female director. The state of California will appeal the judge's decision to strike down the law. The Silenced No More Act provides legal protection for people who talk about discrimination or harassment at work.
Women in tech continue to speak out about their treatment. Ms. Brougher received a settlement for discrimination and retaliation. The courts are handling a discrimination lawsuit by a former chief marketing officer at a financial start-up.
Some progress has been made. Over the last five years, Stitch Fix, The RealReal, Rent the Runway, and Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble have taken their companies public. The number of female chief operating officers in tech has increased. Ms. Choi, Gwynne Shotwell, and Jen Wong are all at different places.
Marne Levine was hired and promoted to the position of chief business officer at Meta. According to the company's data, the percentage of women in Meta's management with titles of director or higher went up to 35 percent in 2021.
Ms. Simo is the chief executive of Instacart, and she was developed by Meta.
"Sheryl's leadership has really mattered to a lot of us."
When Ms. Sandberg leaves her job in the next few months, she will be replaced by a long time Meta executive. The four men who will be in charge of technology and policy are all male.
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