Getting More Women in Leadership

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

My Sunday column is from Davos and uses Sheryl Sandberg’s forthcoming book to look at the persistent gender gap in the US and around the world. Sandberg’s book is going to rub some women the wrong way, because she says that part of the problem is women not being assertive enough. But I think it’s an excellent and important book that spotlights a good point that has to be part of the conversation — as long as it doesn’t distract us from a relentless focus on making the workplace more accommodating to women and families.

If I’d had more space, one point I would have made is that one of the key factors for women to succeed is a flexible and supportive partner. Sandberg argues, and I think she’s right, that the most important career decision a woman makes is when she chooses her spouse. If a woman is stuck doing all the household chores and child-raising, she just can’t have a top-flight career. The great Rosabeth Kanter of Harvard Business School once was asked what men could do to advance women’s leadership, and she replied: “The laundry.”

As my column also notes, though, I’m skeptical of one of the main arguments that people make for women leaders — that they are more nurturing or more supportive of other women. When Sheryl WuDunn and I were writing Half the Sky, we looked at heads of government around the world and found zero correlation between a female head of government and efforts to get more girls in school or to improve maternal mortality. But I do think that we need more women on top for other reasons — to change gender stereotypes and to achieve more diverse and better decision-making. Here’s a column I wrote a few years ago, also from Davos, on that topic.

Incidentally, Adrian Monck of the World Economic Forum made a fair point when I tweeted sarcastically that I had attended a good gender session at Davos, but that the Forum exemplified the problem with its 17 percent female participation. He tweeted back: “16.6% of @nytimes columnists are #women. Mote in both our eyes. Needs addressing.” He’s right that my own domain — opinion journalism — is one that is hugely dominated by men.

Read the column and post your thoughts!