Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg Public displays of misogyny and “tech bro” rhetoric are damaging the corporate culture of the world’s largest companies, a warning comes.

“Words matter, it matters who says what,” Sandberg told CNBC senior media and technology reporter Julia Boorstin on the latest episode of the “CNBC Changemakers and Power Players” podcast.

Sandberg’s comments come from influential conservatives Promote anachronistic views of gender rolesand the latest news linking sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to some of the most powerful people in America, Including her former mentor Larry Summers.

Since then, the patriarchal undercurrent in American culture and politics has only intensified. Yuan CEO Mark Zuckerberg Describes corporate culture as “culture neutral” and says many companies will Benefit from more “masculine energy”.

Zuckerberg made the comments on a podcast in January, days before President Donald Trump took office. Yuan Ye Cut back on DEI initiatives January.

“Yes, the environment is terrible, I think it’s one of the worst environments you and I have ever seen in my career, but we’ve seen this kind of regression before, and that’s no excuse for companies not to do the right thing by all their employees,” Sandberg said.

Sandberg ran Meta for more than a decade and is also Lean websiteis a non-profit organization that promotes the advancement of women in the workforce and is a member of CNBC Changemakers Advisory Board. She joins the podcast to discuss LeanIn and McKinsey’s new strategy Women in the workplace report.

The report is now in its 11th year The emerging “ambition gap” For women at all levels of the business. This finding reflects the fact that half of companies no longer prioritize women’s career advancement. Crucially, the research found that when women have the same opportunities for stretch assignments, sponsorship, mentoring and promotion as men, the ambition gap disappears.

“Those who are opting out — they’re doing it because they don’t see a path forward,” Sandberg said. “Even in this environment, companies have options,” she added.

Sandberg cited data showing that gender diversity improves outcomes. Companies in the top quartile for executive team gender diversity are 15% more likely to achieve above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile. According to McKinsey. To achieve optimal financial results, Sandberg said companies do need to be “core” in focusing on efficiency and profit, but also need to support and empathize with employees to achieve those results.

“Those things are not contradictory, and they’re not particularly masculine or particularly feminine. The best leaders — whether they’re male or female — are both,” she said.

The report also shows that women are at risk of falling behind in developing AI skills. Among young professionals, men are 50% more likely than women to have managerial support for using AI at work.

“It’s a crazy gap that we need to address right now as we’re going to see what happens with jobs, but I know sitting here today and I think it’s obvious that the people who are going to do best in this job market are the people who know how to use this technology,” Sandberg said.

As companies race to develop and deploy AI technology, the inclusion of women is critical – e.g. Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenIA ApplicationsHelp guide decision-making and shape female leadership, Sandberg said. “It does make a big difference.”

Seamus is a CNBC Changemakers 2024. she told CNBC In an interview with Changemakers Earlier this year, when she was CEO of Instacart, “I’m not in Mark’s mind, but what I can tell you is that I think there needs to be a balance, a need for both. I think women also need masculine energy in order to lead. I have to make really hard decisions day in and day out, and sometimes that requires some more masculine energy, some aggression. That’s okay, but I balance that with a lot of the values ​​that we talked about that are more feminine energy.”

Sandberg believes that with the right leadership, investment and regulation, artificial intelligence technology can improve network security, including the security of social media platforms such as Meta. “AI should be a really good tool for finding things that violate policy, so even as the technology continues to expand, there’s a path to making people safer, and that requires real commitment,” she said.

While social media companies, including Meta, are subject to less regulation, she believes AI needs regulation at the federal level and that a patchwork approach that would force companies to launch different products in all 50 states would be “harmful.”

“The right regulation makes sense, but it has to be done with an understanding of what the technology is, and I think that can be challenging in the political world,” Sandberg said. “It should be a deep understanding of technology, understanding of technology changes at the federal level,” she added.

Thursday, President Trump signs executive order Develop a single national regulatory standard for artificial intelligence. The move marks a victory for tech companies, which have lobbied to limit state power in regulating artificial intelligence.

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