The book was presumably in print before Mayer’s subsequent decision to require all Yahoo workers to cease working remotely, and before Mayer built a personal nursery adjoining her office to address her own workplace flexibility needs. Sandberg posits that criticism of Mayer’s decision to take a 2-week maternity leave as the new CEO of Yahoo ignored the parenting role of Mayer’s husband and the breakthrough importance of her position. But the equally noisy media reaction to Sandberg’s former Google colleague, Marissa Mayer, provides a cautionary tale. Doing so, she argues, will change the power structure and expand opportunities: “More female leadership will lead to fairer treatment for all.” Her route to such structural change, however, is to increase the number of women who will stay engaged in their careers. Sandberg clearly recognizes that these issues need to be addressed. My hope, however, is that she will use her considerable platform to address the workplace norms and practices that are more of an impediment than our own fears and inhibitions.
Her research, combined with anecdotes from her own experiences, provides a compelling and often inspirational narrative.Īs someone who spends much of my professional life focusing on women’s leadership and advancement, I love Sandberg’s thoughtful advice to women. Sandberg’s response to the considerable body of research regarding the biases that thwart women’s advancement is to conclude that women lean back prematurely and avoid seizing leadership opportunities that could propel their careers forward. Even as women have outnumbered men in college and graduate schools and have poured into the workplace in nearly equal numbers for decades, we have made little headway in achieving the top leadership jobs, the corporate board seats, or in shrinking the vast gender gap in compensation. As Sandberg points out, women have been stuck in the quicksand of bad - and sometimes worsening - statistics for decades. The passion that spills from so many of these early responses demonstrates just how difficult it is for women who are navigating the difficult terrain of work, career success, and family responsibilities. Without the benefit of reading her words, but relying on the publicity blitz that catapulted the book to best seller status based on pre-orders alone, thousands have weighed in on Sandberg’s call for women to “lean in” and more aggressively pursue their ambitions. Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,’’ has sparked enormous debate and controversy - and that began before its actual release on March 11.
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