Source: www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/opinion/sponsors-for-women.html
Quotes:
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, suggest that women are partly responsible for their absence in the executive suite in all professions. What might help is a sponsor, someone with power in the organization who sticks (more likely) his neck out to endorse a woman in whom he sees leadership potential.
Much of this comes by way of those informal networks that women lack but that come so easily to men by virtue of simply being, well, men.
… Data suggest that women with sponsors are more likely to attain a leadership role than those not sponsored.”
NYTimes: Sponsors for Women