"More women are leaning in — and we'll all go farther when the workplace stops pushing back," Sheryl Sandberg wrote in an article for The Wall Street Journal.
In her article, the Facebook COO and author of Lean In outlines the results of "Women in the Workplace 2016," a study by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. The study surveyed 132 companies employing more than 4.6 million individuals.
The results? We're not altogether much better off than last year, according to Ms. Sandberg. Females, who hold less than 30 percent of senior management roles, are still underrepresented in corporate America. For women of color, the most underrepresented group in corporate leadership, the challenges are even greater, in spite of the fact that they're more likely than white women to want to be at the C-suite level.
Although Ms. Sandberg highlights numerous study findings, she homes in on one: Females who negotiate are 67 percent more likely to be seen by management as "intimidating," "too aggressive" or "bossy." Women are, to use Ms. Sandberg's term, "leaning in," but they're still facing rebuke and pushback.
But this can change. Companies can strive to set gender diversity targets during the hiring and promotion processes. They can also provide women with access to sponsors and give them open recognition for their work. In addition, companies can make investments in gender-bias training.
"And all of us can encourage women to keep negotiating — until the day that it's seen as perfectly normal, and even expected, for women to ask for more," Ms. Sandberg wrote.
Click here to access the full "Women in the Workplace 2016" report.