Question

Watch the TED Talk 2010 series by Sheryl Sandberg "why we have too few women leaders".

Evaluate the speech and explain in detail the weaknesses and strengths of this speech.

Answer 1

Answer)

• Following are the strengths of the speech

1. Use of short experiences-Be it equity investment pitch or a meeting with senior government official where she asked 2 of their female collegues to sit at the table or the experience where men kept their hands raised while women didn't,these examples connected with audience at a personal level and made her speech interesting.
2. Data presented be it number of c-executives,heads of states or dropouts gave a different perspective for audience ,at the same time it made her speech well researched.
3. Solution oriented speech-Speech looked at 3 to do points which is an important initiative as it just does not point the problem but look at solution too.
4. An important topic was covered in an interesting way without making speech dull, as these speeches generally tend to be boring which can kill the importance of the topic.

• Weaknesses of the speech

1. Cherry picking data-Data was cherry picked to support argument but such speeches should also look at increase in women's participation through numbers,how increase is showing progress,but that data is not presented which doesn't give full picture.
2. Assumptions can be dangerous-To assume and support your view points ,to take assumptions can make it very subjective and biased,even the experiences are subjective such as why name Howard was liked over Heidi,why everything has to be strongly assumed and it makes speech biased
3. Never looked at other side of the fence-Speech was focused on how women don't ask for promotions or think too much in advance but it never looked at a lot of companies' paternity leave rules where fathers are not expected to take break,speech never talks about problems which comes with expectations or how at times it is about risk taking approach ,it talks about rights but less of responsibilities.

In nutshell,speech was good and effective but at same time it did suffer from subjective bias which could have been eliminated.

Answer is complete.Thank you!