WHEN: Today, Tuesday, December 9, 2025
WHERE: CNBC’s “Power Lunch”
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Former Meta COO, LeanIn.Org Founder, and CNBC Changemakers Advisory Board Member Sheryl Sandberg on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” (M-F, 2PM-3PM ET) today, Tuesday, December 9. Following is a link to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/12/09/half-of-companies-dont-think-womens-career-advancement-is-a-priority-facebooks-sheryl-sandberg.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
JULIA BOORSTIN: Thanks so much. And, Sheryl, thanks so much for joining us here today in your first TV interview in years. I understand you wanted to come on now to talk about these results of this McKinsey-LeanIn study. Why does it look like women are losing ground?
SHERYL SANDBERG: Because about half of companies no longer think women’s career advancement is a priority, and 21 percent of companies say it’s a low or not a priority at all. And those are the companies that participated in the report. So, in many ways, they’re the best of them, not the worst. The thing that most concerns me is that, for the first time in 11 years of doing this study, we’re seeing a real ambition gap. You ask men and women at the same level, do you want to be promoted, and more men than women are saying yes. And this is what’s important. That only happens when they don’t get the opportunities men do. For women who get the same stretch assignments, sponsors, mentors, encouragement, that ambition gap completely disappears. The problem is that women at both ends of the career spectrum face bigger barriers. At the entry level, for every 100 men that get promoted, 93 women, 60 black women, 82 Latinas. We never catch up.
BOORSTIN: Now, what about the rise of AI? With AI taking more mid- and lower-level jobs that women are more likely to hold, how do you think AI is going to impact women in particular in the work force?
SANDBERG: Well, I think we should be concerned. And this report has some troubling early data, which is that, at the entry level, where people are a lot, get a lot of guidance from their managers, more than 50 percent more men are being encouraged to use AI tools than women. We know that AI is going to be challenging for jobs, and it’s going to be the most challenging for the people that don’t know how to use those tools. And so, much like that broken rung at the entry level, if we start encouraging people just a few years into the work force, encouraging more men than women to use it, we are going to see disproportionate impacts. And that would be a real, a real shame for our companies, bad for our economy.
BOORSTIN: Connecting these findings to what’s happening culturally right now, there have been so many recent displays, public displays of misogyny, including those revealed in the Epstein files, even including your former mentor. How is that cultural reversal in terms of what seems like a rise in misogyny impacting what’s happening in the workplace?
SANDBERG: I mean, look, I have been in the work force for four decades. I’m 56. And what I see each time is that we make progress, there’s backsliding. We make progress, there’s backsliding. I think we’re in a really bad moment. The rhetoric is terrible, but and I really want to be clear on this for the companies out there, that’s not an excuse not to do the right thing for the women in your work force. There are many completely legally appropriate ways of leveling the playing field. So, for example, men, 1 percent of men get style-based feedback, 66 percent of women. If companies take the time to identify in advance review criteria, that goes away. So, no matter what the environment is, and we definitely need to fix it, we really need to focus, and that’s what this report is on companies keeping their commitment to women.
BOORSTIN: Since you left Meta, the company, as well as many other in Silicon Valley, have rolled back its DEI policies, many of the things you put in place. And Meta has also gotten rid of some of the teams that you put in place dedicated to platform safety. Right now, do you think Meta is doing enough to mitigate potential unintended consequences, especially when AI can have such an amplifying effect?
SANDBERG: So, I care tremendously about online safety. I did for all those years at the company. And I believe there are a lot of people at the company that really have the best of intentions and want to do the right thing. I think these investments need to be made. And the good news is that AI should make it more effective, not less effective. If you’re trying to do something, and you have powerful technology behind you, then AI should make it more possible to keep people safe online, not less.
BOORSTIN: Since you left, Mark Zuckerberg, though, has really made a big push into AI. And a lot of investors are concerned that the AI costs are growing faster than revenue is growing. Are you concerned about an AI bubble?
SANDBERG: So, I have been in this valley, Silicon Valley, for a while, and I was at Google in the early days and then at Facebook and what’s now Meta. And this pattern of investing ahead of revenue opportunities is important. If Google, when I was there, had made sure they could cover the cost for search, they wouldn’t have invested enough in search that would get enough people to use it, that would improve those results. So I think investments ahead of revenue make sense. I’m not going to comment on what level. But, in the end, there’s going to be a business model that covers these costs. There has to be. And that, there are lots of options for that, and companies, I think, will get this right.
BOORSTIN: So, with the rise of AI at Meta and also your other former employer, Google, what would your advice to them be right now, not just about investments, but about thinking about potential implications and risks of these incredibly powerful tools they’re developing?
SANDBERG: We have to learn from what’s happened, right? Every technology that’s ever been invented has good uses and bad uses, has good and harm. And the more powerful the technology, the more extreme those can be. So it’s on everyone working on building this technology to understand. And that, for me, comes right back to women, because I believe, when there are more women at the table, when there, when our young girls can see female leaders, we are more likely not just to do a better job on business performance, but to get more of these things right.
BOORSTIN: That’s fascinating. Sheryl, thank you so much for joining us. And this women in the workplace report is important reading, and perhaps a lot of warnings in here, that we should all be taking a look at it. Sheryl Sandberg, thanks so much for joining us. And, guys, I’m going to send it back over to you.