#MeToo Could Have Backlash Against Women: Sheryl Sandberg

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said that the #MeToo movement could cause backlash for women at work. She posted about it on her Facebook page. She said that the movement may cause people to say that this is why you should’t hire women.

But she says that the #MeToo movement is the reason that people should hire women. “Actually, this is why you should. And you shouldn’t just hire women — you should mentor, advise, and promote them.”

In her post, Sandberg also spoke about her own experiences with sexual harassment. She said that she is lucky because she is 48 and has never been subjected to sexual harassment by her bosses, all of whom were men.

Still, she says that she has experienced sexual harassment in the form of unwanted sexual advances "in the course of doing my job”, Sandberg said in the post. “A hand on my leg under the table at a meeting. Married men — all decades older than I — offering ‘career advice’ and then suggesting that they could share it with me alone late at night. The conference where a man I declined leaving a dinner with came to my hotel room late at night and banged on my door until I called security.”

She said that in all those moments, they had more power than she did, and that’s why she is convinced that it is the power issue that causes harassment.

“For the first time in my professional life, it feels like people are finally prepared to hold perpetrators responsible. I’m cheering – both as my current self and as that younger self who jumped up to bolt the lock on a hotel room door,” Sheryl Sandberg

She said that she hopes that the moment will lead to a stronger and more equitable work culture.

“The percentage of men who will be afraid to be alone with a female colleague has to be sky high right now. Doing right by women in the workplace does not just mean treating them with respect. It also means not isolating or ignoring them – and making access equal,” she wrote.

We couldn't agree with her words more!

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