I rarely read Vogue magazine, but I was eager to see what they had to say about Sheryl Sandberg, the highly successful COO of Facebook. The story is part of a new dialogue about women leaders – a focus on their leadership, accomplishments, and style. Let me quote directly from Kevin Conley’s piece:

“It’s tempting to see Sandberg’s managerial style… as an example of practical third-wave feminism hitting the workplace. But this interpretation does her a disservice. Sandberg’s policies aren’t rare because there are so few women executives. They’re rare because there aren’t many executives, male or female, with her skills and abilities.”

Vogue’s feature “What she saw at the revolution” is different from the conventional themes about women in business. It does not assert how business life is so different and hard for women who have both careers and families.  Continue reading…

Hardly a day goes by without reading strong commentary about the important but insufficient contribution of women in business and government. Joanne Lipman proclaims in an op-ed in the New York Times, 10/23 that women have not come as far as we would have expected 25 years ago, “and attitudes have taken a giant leap backward.” Lipman, a former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal, was founding editor of Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine. She notes that “progress for women has stalled” in partner positions at law firms, on corporate boards or in corporate officer positions. Continue reading…