Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
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Summary
Lean In Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg is a book written for helping women excel in their professional life and succeed in businesses. The author details the different internal and external barriers which prevent women moving ahead in their professional life and taking up leadership positions. She justifies her reasoning with data and studies on the related domain.She also highlights the cultural messages and influences which prevent women from aspiring and taking up leadership positions in professional life. The author says that men negotiate hard and ask for more than women in a professional set up. Men even if they are less qualified ask for more and women feel they are undeserving or are fearful of rejection hence they do not ask more.
Sandberg says that women pass on the leadership opportunities to other and sometimes to someone less deserving due to the internal biases. Successful men are more likable but successful women are generally more unlikeable in the professional domain. The author makes another interesting observation on career advancement.
She says that career advancement is like a jungle gym with multiple paths to advancement instead of a ladder-like widely perceived. Sandberg also provides her views on balancing work and family life. She says that women should encourage their husbands to take up equal share of the domestic work and men also should split their work with wives. Women should not leave their work too early when they are expecting to have children.
Review
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg provides an interesting insight into the reasons why women are held back in professional set up. The narrative is simple yet powerful and thought-provoking. It can be applied by women in all levels of the organizational hierarchy and not merely helpful for the top management.The author does not try to spark a new feminine revolution with the book but merely presents the mostly known facts in a empowering manner. This is a must-read book for all women and even men which will help them provide with the right mindset and reduce the ways in which discrimination manifests itself against the fairer sex at the workplace.