- The Washington Times - Monday, December 4, 2017

Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg says she fears the “#MeToo” campaign against sexual misconduct could lead to a backlash against hiring and promoting women.

In a lengthy Facebook post on Sunday, Ms. Sandberg said she has already “rumblings of a backlash: ’This is why you shouldn’t hire women.’ “

“Actually, this is why you should,” she wrote. “And you shouldn’t just hire women — you should mentor, advise, and promote them.”

Ms. Sandberg’s comments stand in sharp contrast to the rule employed by Vice President Mike Pence, and other prominent Christians, of never being alone with a woman who is not his wife.

Although she did not mention the vice president in her post, Ms. Sandberg said policies like the Pence rule could hold women back because “mentoring almost always occurs in one-on-one settings.”

“The percentage of men who will be afraid to be alone with a female colleague has to be sky high right now,” she wrote, citing a statistic that 64 percent of senior male managers were afraid of being alone with a female colleague for fear of a sexual harassment allegation.

Ms. Sandberg argued that women’s equality in the workplace “does not just mean treating them with respect. It also means not isolating or ignoring them — and making access equal.”

“So much good is happening to fix workplaces right now,” Ms. Sandberg wrote. “Let’s make sure it does not have the unintended consequence of holding women back.”

Ms. Sandberg said having more women in senior positions “wouldn’t solve all the problems we face,” but it “could get quite a lot of good done.”

“But one thing’s for certain: many fewer people would be groped and worse while trying to do their jobs. And that would be a major step in the right direction.”

• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.

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