Meta’s Sheryl Sandberg, 'No two countries run by women would ever go to war'

March 10, 2022: -Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has suggested Russia and Ukraine wouldn’t be at war if women ran them.

“No two countries run by women would ever go to war,” Sandberg told CNBC in Dubai during a fireside at a Cartier event marking International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine late last month. President Vladimir Putin has said his goal is for the “demilitarization of Ukraine” and the recognition of Crimea as Russian and rebel-held regions Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

Ukraine said that it has the right to self-determination and wants membership in the European Union. The country has fought back considerably against Russia. On Monday, the defense intelligence agency claimed Ukrainian forces killed a second Russian general days after a first was killed last week.

Sandberg said that if women ran half the world, she believes the world would be “safer” and “much more prosperous.”

According to the Meta executive, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, women-led countries like New Zealand performed better than their male-run counterparts.

Still, the pandemic has raised several challenges for gender equality, Sandberg said. Covid was a “complete crisis for gender equality,” she said, adding women’s participation in the labor force is “plummeting all around the world.”

“Covid has wiped out three and a half decades of progress for women,” Sandberg said. She added that women are leaving the workforce due to an uneven balance of labor in the home.

According to the National Women’s Law Center analysis, the women’s workforce participation rate reachedreaches 57% in January, which is the lowest level since 1988.

In the previous week, Russian media censor Roskomnadzor said it would block access to Meta’s Facebook, which claimed the social platform unfairly restricted access to several state-affiliated media outlets.

Russian authorities at first are ordering the platform to stop fact-checking and labeling content posted on Facebook by state-owned outlets such as RT and Sputnik, Meta’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg said. Meta refused that request.

Russia has strengthened its crackdown on social media companies, with Facebook blocked and Twitter harder to use.

Sandberg sums up Russia’s decision to block Facebook from the country in six simple words.