Last year, her book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, was a bestseller for months and she is popular for her speeches to women’s groups. She’s also happily married with two small children.

So she believes a woman can have it all? Not really.

She can point to the Fortune 500, the list of America’s top CEOs, and 24 of them are women.

Barely 5 per cent.

When we look at Australia’s Top 100, we find four women — close enough in percentage terms, except that with this month’s departure of Gail Kelly from Westpac, that number will dwindle to three.

What is controversial about Ms Sandberg’s philosophy is: sure, there are elements of sexism and testosterone involved, but more of the questions need to be sheeted to women themselves.

“We women don’t take enough risk in our careers,” she has stated.

In her articles and books, she writes about warning her female staff: “Don’t Leave Before You Leave.”

Ms Sandberg has seen this at Facebook, and in her previous job, that made her reputation, with Google. “I offer promotions and opportunities to these young women, and they tell me, ‘I want to get pregnant in three years, so I can’t do that’.” And then they mark time, at a stage when the most ambitious job advancement should be made.

Pattie Sellers compiles Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list.

She has seen a change in the types of companies or industries that have adopted female leaders.

She reports in wonder: “Who would have imagined that two of the biggest defence contractors would have female leaders? And IBM and HP? ”

She would have responded equally to Australia’s situation — that dominion of male engineers, Telstra, with a female chairman Catherine Livingstone; or our most masculine reserve, the mining industry, dominated by Gina Rinehart.

There is a lot of talk about opportunities and quotas, and women don’t have the same roadblocks that they had half a century ago when a woman was sacked when she married.

Women are more collaborative than men, so in a world where teams and work groups are all-important, their contributions shine.

“But women think about power differently than men do,” says Ms Sellers.

“Women think about power much more horizontally. Men think about power vertically.”

She asked hundreds of women and men why they started their company.

“Men tend to say to make a lot of money. Women want to create the company they would like to work for.”

Often, they have come from a big company and they don’t want to work that way any more.

Our universities turn out increasing numbers of highly qualified women.

Will they forever fill the ranks of middle management without reaching the top?

Ms Sellers sees little chance of parity. “We might get 100 CEOs, eventually 150. But we’re never going to get 250 Fortune 500s.”

It comes down to women.

Can they change the nature of business — or the nature of themselves?

This article was originally published on Herald Sun 12th February. Read the original article here.