Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook COO and Lean In author explains the 'logic' behind workplace misogyny

The trailblazing Silicon Valley worker cut to the quick of why women are discriminated against

Talking on a panel in Davos, Sheryl Sandberg debated the need for quotas alonside IMF's Christine Lagarde (Getty)

Sheryl Sandberg is an incredible feminist role model, and now she's managed to succinctly phrase how women often struggle in the workplace.

"Our biases against women need to be exposed, understood, and changed," Sandberg told Bloomberg during an interview with Richard Branson.

Discussing the trial of Ellen Pao, now interim CEO of Reddit, Sandberg and Branson examined the issues raised lawsuit she brought against former employee Kleiner Perkins. Pao lost the trial, but the interview focused on broader attitudes to women in business.

Pao claimed she was excluded from business trips and told to take notes in meetings, which was not expected of her male colleagues.

"So many women, not just in technology, but across industries, saw their own experiences," Sandberg said.

"What’s happening is we have systematic stereotypes of women, and systematic biases of women. For men, likeability and success is correlated. As they get more successful, more powerful, they’re better liked. For women, success and likability are negatively correlated. As a woman gets more successful, more powerful - she is less liked."

"The treatment of women in the workforce is an issue," she argued. "The assumptions that men can have both families and work and women can't. Those are bad and those are hard and we need to change them."

Branson added that he didn't think true gender equality would be reflected in boardrooms "for another hundred years" and backed a 50 per cent female quota on the boards of all new companies.