Man-woman balance must be struck first at home: Facebook COO

To see more women in the leadership position and strike a balance between men and women in workplace, it is important that the balance is achieved first in all households, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Wednesday.

Sandberg has made the observation at a time when the country is talking about more representation for women in government, legislatures and in board rooms.

"We have to achieve balance in our homes first. We can't achieve balance between men and women in workplace unless we have it at home," she said in an address to the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) here.

"There should be equal and fair treatment for women and a woman should have more self-confidence. We need more women in leadership positions," Sandberg added.

She said though there were wide cultural differences among various countries, when it came to men-women differentiation "it is so similar".

Sandberg, who started her career in India in 1981 working with the World Bank on leprosy project, is a mother of two. She said mothers also "systematically over-estimate a son's quality over the daughter's."

She emphasised that despite being engaged in any profession, a woman needs to give full attention to the house but that does not happen for men.

"A woman has two jobs, man has one! So if you want to be nice to your wife, don't buy flowers, do laundry," she suggested.

In her book, "Lean in: Women, Work and Will to Lead" which has sold over one million copies worldwide, Sandberg examines why women's progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.