Sheryl Sandberg—former Meta (previously Facebook) chief operating officer and author of the motivational leadership book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead—has shared her take on the hypermasculine corporate culture spreading through Silicon Valley: It’s “one of the worst” she’s ever encountered.
Sandberg, who held Meta’s COO role for more than 14 years before stepping down in 2022, told CNBC that corporate America has undergone a cultural shift, explaining: “Rhetoric matters. Who says what matters.”
“Yes, the environment is truly terrible—I think it’s one of the worst we’ve seen in our careers—but we’ve witnessed this kind of backsliding before, and that’s no excuse for companies not to do right by all their employees,” Sandberg told CNBC correspondent Julia Boorstin in December.
Sandberg’s comments stand out because her former boss—Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and Meta CEO—has been a key figure in Silicon Valley’s drift toward hypermasculinity. In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan last year, Zuckerberg noted that while he supports fostering welcoming environments, he views corporate America as “culturally neutered” and argues it could use more “aggression” and masculine energy.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and the White House have also waged a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in both public and private sectors. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate all DEI programs in the federal government. Beyond the White House, the Trump administration also ordered federal agencies to “combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences.” Concurrently, the Department of Justice has closely scrutinized dozens of universities, with institutions like Northwestern University, Columbia University, and Cornell University reaching multi-million-dollar settlements with the government.
Some companies are also under scrutiny, such as Northwestern Mutual, which is being investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over its DEI policies.
As rhetoric emphasizing masculinity and opposing DEI has intensified, women’s progress in the workplace has stalled, according to the 2025 Women in the Workplace study by LeanIn.org and management consulting firm McKinsey. The study surveyed 9,500 employees at 124 companies. Half of the surveyed companies no longer prioritize women’s career advancement. Another 21%—and these are companies that chose to participate in the study, Sandberg added—see women’s career advancement as a low priority or no priority at all.
All this adds up to a critical emergency for gender equity advocates, Sandberg said.
Succeeding at work and uplifting a team requires leaders to be dedicated, she noted—but the way to foster that committed mindset is through empathetic, kind leadership that brings out the best in workers.
“These qualities aren’t conflicting, and they’re not inherently masculine or feminine,” Sandberg said. “The best leaders, whether male or female, have both.”
A version of this story originally published on .com on Dec. 17, 2025.
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