#MeToo backfires against women

FRI, MAY 17, 2019

YOUR AFTERNOON NEWS UPDATE AND MARKET ACTION FROM CNBC

AS OF FRI, MAY 17, 2019 • 12:15 ET

DJIA		25836.00
		-0.10%	-26.68

S&P 500		2868.00
		-0.29%	-8.32

NASDAQ		7851.65
		-0.59%	-46.39

EDITOR'S NOTE

Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, was on with Julia earlier and they hit on all the hot-button issues that the company is facing today. You can watch the whole thing here.

But to me, the most interesting thing that Sheryl said came at the very beginning, when she disclosed the results of her latest Lean In/Survey Monkey study.

She said 60% of male managers are now afraid to do a one-on-one activity with a woman, including having a meeting. That's up from 46% who said so in last year's survey.

As Sheryl said, the biggest problem with that is that "no one's ever gotten a promotion without getting a one-on-one meeting." Male managers are also now nine times more likely to hesitate to travel with a woman, and six times more likely to hesitate to have dinner with a woman.

Sheryl faulted the men for reacting this way--"If there's a man out there who doesn't want to have work dinners with a woman, then he shouldn't have work dinners with a man," she remarked. But I can certainly understand men playing it super, super safe in this environment.

Julia asked her what corporate America is supposed to do about this now, and Sheryl said, "If we want to change workplace dynamics, you know where the least sexual harassment is? In organizations that have women in senior leadership roles."

But here's the irony: advancing women into higher leadership positions probably entails having senior men talking to them one-on-one about it. You have to wonder if one of one of society's biggest goals has just been dealt a major setback.

Much more on all the other news at 1 p.m. today! See you then...

Kelly

Kelly Evans

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