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Is Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Really A Female Tech Pioneer?

This article is more than 10 years old.

There’s no question that Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg is an accomplished business person, but there is debate over her credentials as a woman pioneer in technology. As Chief Operating Officer of the social network valued at $100 billion at its IPO last month, her C-Suite position is strictly executive level management as opposed to coding or engineering.  Her previous role at Google as VP of Global Online Sales and Operations was also non-technical. (For the record, CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t written code since 2006-7, according to the book, The Facebook Effect.)

Nonetheless, Sandberg’s lack of hard science and engineering credentials  — she received a MBA from the Harvard Business School and earned a B.A. in Economics as a Harvard undergraduate — has not prevented her from being widely hailed as the most powerful woman in tech. And with the current spotlight focused so intensely on increasing the number of women working in science and math careers, what does it mean when the most high profile female executive in Silicon Valley possesses little expertise in technology or engineering?

Now, it can be argued that any woman employed in the technology industry, regardless of job description, is a positive, and leave it at that. Women are a significant minority among those employed in technology jobs. Although women comprise 48% of the U.S. workforce, they hold only 24% of science, engineering, technology, and math positions, according to government statistics. This imbalance means the few high achievers, such as Sandberg, are viewed as both an inspiration and an outlier.

“Sheryl's ability to gain visibility, create more dialog around women in technology contributes to, not takes away from, other women in technology,” says Carolyn Leighton, founder of the Women In Technology International (WITI). “Decisions in organizations do not occur in a vacuum, but in fact, are the net result of the energy, teams, leaders and visionaries. Sheryl has to completely understand the technology in order to make effective decisions.” Sandberg may have not created Facebook, but it’s generally agreed she played a critical role in its growth. She is largely credited with designing the opportunities for the site to make money. Under her guidance, Facebook introduced display-side advertisements, sponsored stories, and virtual currency.

The counterpoint, however, is that women interested in technological and engineering careers have a different skillset than Sandberg.  “Sandberg is great [at] controlling the mothership,” says scientist Heidi Dangelmeier of the Girl Approved design agency. “But I hope that isn’t as good as it gets. I would hope that our aspirations as females in relationship to technology would be more than managing young geeks. Girls need to invent the ship, not run the crew” — a reference to Sandberg’s Harvard Business School graduation speech last month: “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.”

Women advocates agree that placing Sandberg on a pedestal illustrates a larger problem surrounding the discussion of women in technology. “This is far more about geek worship and media then anything about Sandberg,” says Dangelmeier. “We are not having the right conversation as a culture about what it means for women in technology.”

This debate about Sandberg’s bona fides as a “woman in tech” can be attributed to the mean-girl mentality that tends to become even more prevalent when women are the minority. Women attack other women either because of insecurities or to protect their own turf. In fact, women bullies torment women in 89% of workplace incidents, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute. When Leighton started her organization in 1989, she says a group of technical women “attacked” her because, similar to Sandberg, she came from the business, not the technical world.  “At the time, I was stunned that the very women I was committed to helping had turned against me so viciously without even knowing me.” Years later, Leighton says one of those attackers admitted that if one of the women in that tech group had tried to start a group like WITI, which currently has more than 140,000 members, she believed they probably would have failed. WITI succeeded only because of Leighton’s business experience and personal passion.

The debate over Sandberg’s background also symbolizes the polarizing viewpoints among those engaged with this issue. This isn’t the only women’s issue where there’s little agreement. Is the ultimate goal for those advocating on behalf of women in technology to ensure gender parity in the workforce?  Does it mean women receive an equal number of science-related college degrees as men? Or does it mean anything men can do, women can do--and better? And does any professional woman who works in the technology industry — including receptionists, janitors and advertising executives — qualify as a woman in technology?

These questions remain largely unresolved. Some women advocates feel the best solution is to focus on increasing the number of women working as executives in this industry and that the primary mission is to raise the general awareness of the possibilities that women can have if they pursue technology careers. Early awareness is another key to get more girls interested in technology, according to Patty O’Brien Novak, author of Engineering the ABCs. “I never talk about mechanical engineer or civil engineer in my workshops for young girls.  Instead I ask them if they'd like to be a Girl Scout cookie engineer or an ice cream engineer or an earrings engineer.  Changing a few words in how we talk with young girls about engineering makes such a difference in their receptiveness to engineering.”

Dangelmeier, for her part, is more concerned over women’s relationship to technology. “When we sign up for technology, when we jump on board, what are we also endorsing? We agree to a dialogue that is 140 characters or less [that was established by a male inventor], rather than create our own tools. It’s vital girls approach science through innovation, and not because of some gender equality concern. We don’t need to do what men do to be equal.”