Esther Addley 

Sheryl Sandberg ‘does more than her fair share of childcare’

Husband of Facebook COO and author of Lean In reveals household chores are distributed between them 'more like 60/40'
  
  



Her bestselling book urges every woman to make her partner "a real partner" by ensuring that household responsibilities are shared equally in the home. But even Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and author of Lean In, takes on the majority of the childcare and household management at home, her husband has revealed.

"I think Sheryl does more like 60 [per cent] and it's more like 40 for me," David Goldberg, the CEO of the billion-dollar tech firm SurveyMonkey, told an audience in London on Tuesday, after being challenged by a questioner at an event at which Sandberg was speaking as to how fairly the couple really shared the load at home. "But it doesn't come easily and we have to work at it. We spend a lot of time with our schedules."

Sandberg, one of the most powerful women in business, who is personally worth more than $1bn, leaves work at 5.30pm to spend time with the couple's two young children, she admits in the book, logging on again after they have gone to bed. She told the audience at the Guardian Women in Leadership event that she thought she and Goldberg did half the work each "over time", but "it's very much back and forth by the day, the week or the month".

In general, in families with children, "women have two jobs and men have one", she said. "What would happen if we had real partners? We will never get to real equality in our workplaces until we get to equality at home."

Lean In has been a global publishing phenomenon, selling 1.6 million copies and inspiring the formation of 16,000 "circles" in 72 countries, in which women meet for informal networking and mentoring with their peers. But it has also attracted heated criticism, in particular from some feminists, who argue that Sandberg's ambition-friendly message doesn't do enough to tackle the structural barriers to women's advancement in the workplace, and underplays the immense privilege of its billionaire author. "She seems to think she can remedy social paradigms with a new kind of club — a combo gabfest, Oprah session and corporate pep talk," wrote Maureen Dowd in the New York Times.

"I don't believe anyone argues for real change in the world and doesn't get criticised," Sandberg said, adding that she was "grateful" for any debate around the topics raised in the book. "The real risk is not active debate. The real risk is that we will settle on down thinking this is OK."

Sandberg, a Democrat, has been a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton, and some have seen the movement she has inspired as the ideal springboard for a run for political office. But the 44-year-old rebutted the speculation, saying: "I love my job and I loved working on Lean In, so that is the right path for me right now. I do not plan on running for political office, but I hope I can make a difference in the workplace."

Asked why there had never been a female president of the US, she said: "Until we make ambition something we admire in females, we will not have a female president, or we will have one and then not another one for the next three decades."

But does the woman who is number two to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, who can afford all the help she would ever need at home, really feel as if she is a fraud and suffer from guilt and a need to be liked – three things that she says in her book hold back working women? "All of those," said Sandberg. "I don't think we walk around and say: 'I feel really guilty I'm here today because my kid is sick at home.' I feel that all the time. I don't say it a lot."

 

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