Good morning, Broadsheet readers. Today, we hear from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on little girls, boys and “executive leadership.” Read on to learn about the pro sports league that has a woman problem (not the NFL) and why Viagra is targeting women in its latest ad campaign. Have a great Wednesday!
EVERYONE'S TALKING
•Mary Barra shifts gears. As the company's massive vehicle recall finally winds down, the General Motors CEO today will unveil a multi-year financial plan. In a scheduled investor meeting, Barra will set more specific deadlines for financial targets and detail how she plans to improve the company's infamous corporate culture. GM stock has fallen roughly 17% since she took over in January. WSJ
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
•Cornell appoints first female president. Elizabeth Garrett, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Southern California, will become Cornell's 13th president -- and the first woman to hold the position in the school's 149-year history. Bloomberg
•NYC's unconventional first lady on the city's future. Chirlane McCray always has "felt outside of the mainstream." Now, the wife of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is using that outsider's perspective to make the city better. "Because of my life's journey, I know what it's like to be an 'only,' whether that is as the only woman, the only dark-skinned woman, or the only working-class woman," she says. Fortune
• 'Silver medal is first loser.' Safra Catz, the newly appointed co-CEO of software maker Oracle, may be in the market to acquire a large applications company. "We’re No. 1 in database, we’re No. 1 in middleware, but we’re No. 2 in applications,” says Catz. If Oracle can't find the company it needs to grow in application software, it will focus on its own research and development, she added. Bloomberg
•A new fund to back women execs. Boutique investment firm Hypatia Capital Group is raising $100 million for a new fund to back companies with female executive officers and teams headed by women. “We want to see more qualified female chief executive officers in the middle market and Fortune 1000," says Hypatia CEO Patricia Lizarraga. WSJ
•Female VCs losing ground. The total percentage of women venture capital partners has dropped to 6% from 10% in 1999, according to a study out of Babson College. The study's author is perplexed by the roots of this trend, but says "the women are there, they’re qualified, and they perform well. I’m very tired of this argument that it’s the women who need to fix themselves.” Businessweek
•Mostly white, mostly male. It's not just the upper echelon of Wall Street that suffers from a gender diversity problem: Nearly 78% of this year's first-year bankers are men. At Goldman Sachs, 56% of first-year analysts are white, which is the lowest percentage among the big banks. NYTimes
•A gender equality conference...without women. The government of Iceland announced a new conference on the topic of gender equality. The attendees: men. The conference comes in the wake of Emma Watson launching the #HeforShe campaign to get more men to support equal rights for women. Time
•MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Anne Toth,the former head of privacy and policy for Google+ and chief trust officer at Yahoo, is now VP of policy and compliance strategy for workplace collaboration startup Slack.
BROADVIEW
Sheryl Sandberg on girls, boys and 'executive leadership'
Sheryl Sandberg has a joke (of sorts) that she likes to tell about little girls. It always gets a laugh in front of a big crowd, yet when the Facebook chief operating officer simply switches the subject's gender, she finds the audience goes silent.
Sandberg, the author of Lean In and founder of the Lean In Organization, is known for her campaign to ban the word bossy when describing young women. Calling them bossy, she says, sends a message: Don't raise your hand or speak up.
"Next time you see a little girl and she's called bossy, you walk up to her and say 'That little girl's not bossy. That little girl has executive leadership skills,' Sandberg said in an interview with Fortune editor Alan Murray to a giggling audience at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech dinner in New York City on Tuesday night.
Yet when Sandberg ran the same line by the group of about 100 attendees about bossy little boys having executive leadership skills, you could hear a pin drop.
"There is no humor. That is because we expect leadership in boys, but we don't in girls. That means women have a harder time... Until we start applauding leadership in women like we do in men, we can't change it." says Sandberg.
To read what Sandberg said about Facebook's biggest risk, click here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
•Major league sports' other gender scandal. Pressure is on the NFL right now to bring more women into executive leadership positions, but the MLB might have a bigger problem on its hands. While the number of women in leadership at the NFL has improved over the years, the percentage of women in the MLB's head office actually declined last year. MLB also is dealing with lawsuits from former female employees alleging discrimination. ESPN
•The end of women's colleges?Gender-specific colleges can no longer afford to serve only half the population. Overall college enrollment has increased by about 32% since 2000, but enrollment at women-only colleges has fallen by 29% during the same period. Today, only a few dozen women's colleges exist in the U.S., but there we as many as 200 in the 1960's. Time
•Viagra's new audience. The maker of the world's top-selling erectile dysfunction drug will begin airing TV ads with a female audience in mind. The move makes sense, say experts, because women are typically more upset by the problem than men are. WSJ
ON MY RADAR
Why Carmen Segarra was fired from the New York FedBloomberg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg works out like a Canadian Air Force pilot Vox
Are workplace personality tests fair? WSJ
Overworked fathers lean out National Post
Does Lena Dunham's new book actually say anything about Lena Dunham? Slate
QUOTE
It’s not just (NFL Commissioner) Goodell who needs to get it right. The owners, coaches, and others in management must take the lead in the quest to eradicate violence in the NFL, other sports and, since so many young people look up to athletes, in the broader community. The NFL needs to step up given their role in society.
Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the national coalition and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable.
