Facebook 's decision to file for public status means its No . 2 executive , Sheryl Sandberg , might be worth as much as $ 1.6 billion . According to Forbes , that would catapult her just below the seemingly untouchable Oprah in the ranking of the richest self-made women . She wo n't have much company : Only 7.5 % of the major earners at America 's Fortune 500 companies are female . The many media profiles of Sandberg all seem to be asking the same question : How did Sheryl do it ? How did she get the confidence to perform so well at such a high level ? And perform she has . According to The New York Times , she took Facebook from 70 million users and no business model to profits reaching $ 1 billion on $ 3.7 billion in revenue in just four years . Sandberg 's own mentor , Larry Summers , ignited a firestorm in 2005 when he wondered publicly whether one reason women were n't achieving at the highest levels in the sciences was a lack of biological aptitude , particularly for math . Before long , he was ousted from his position as president of Harvard -- not officially for this reason -- and the nation was abuzz about women 's lack of parity in so many fields and forums . At that time , about 15 % of opinion pieces were written by women , though the imbalance was largely under the radar . The opinion page became a particularly contentious space for an outpouring of women 's voices in this overdue conversation . Nationally syndicated columnist Susan Estrich called The Los Angeles Times ' leadership out for sexism on its opinion pages . Anne Applebaum of The Washington Post argued with Estrich and said she resented being called a `` female '' journalist . And Maureen Dowd of The New York Times , echoing one of the most commonly held beliefs about why women do n't have parity , wrote that women were n't fairly represented because they are afraid of being attacked and care too much about what others think . They lack confidence . But what does that really mean ? The notion that women lack confidence implies a negative judgment . It 's viewed as a weakness , coded as feminine . But some recent social science research reveals a more likely and complex explanation : People do things because people who look and talk like them or share the same background do those things . To assume that a lack of confidence is the reason so few women are intellectual leaders is too simplistic . When a woman does n't go for a big corporate job like Sandberg 's or says no when television producers call , saying she does n't have any confidence implies it 's an individual choice made in some sort of sociocultural vacuum . As women , in many cases , the impulse to do something out of the norm of our peer group , like write an opinion piece or ask for a promotion , has simply never occurred to us . If it does , we do n't act on it . Our girlfriends are n't doing it . Our female colleagues are n't doing it . Why should we ? Peer influence , whether you 're a teenage girl trying to figure out what to wear to junior high on Monday morning or a midlevel manager at Morgan Stanley , is a powerful indicator of what you think is possible for yourself . In `` Join the Club : How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World , '' Tina Rosenberg writes , `` The social norms set by our peers dominate our choices about what we value and what we expect in life . '' Sandberg , who often urges women to `` lean into '' their careers , must know that you do n't lean in alone . She runs a monthly salon for women out of her home , inviting guest speakers like feminist Gloria Steinem and trailblazing Sen. Claire McCaskill . Women of various generations gather and shape their ambitions over a meal and some conversation . At The OpEd Project , we cultivate new voices , training minorities and women to inhabit their place as narrators of the world . The challenge is to shift the way we think about ourselves . We must see our peers and ourselves as leaders who have a right and a responsibility to weigh in on the matters of our day . We have to create a new ecosystem in which we see ourselves as part of the critical conversations of our age and feel equally entitled and compelled to narrate them . Who has n't heard a parent quip , `` If all of your friends were jumping off of a cliff , would you ? '' There 's some profound wisdom in that old cliché : If your friends are n't aiming for high-profile corporate leadership or going head-to-head on the Sunday morning talk shows , you 're not likely to , either . We can create more Sandbergs by surrounding ourselves with confident , outspoken women . Follow CNN Opinion on Twitter . Join the conversation on Facebook .
Writers : Facebook 's Sandberg an anomaly ; 7.5 % of Fortune 500 big earners are female . Too often , they write , people attribute the scarcity of powerful women to a lack of confidence . But that isn't true at all. Women need to feel entitled to power and must cultivate confident friends , they say .