... practical advice for both professional women (take more risks and do not be so silent about the risks) and any male managers or executives (look for and recognize women's contributions; encourage women to 'sit at the table') ... This title should be encouraged reading for all working women as well as all members of management.
No one who reads this book will ever doubt that Sandberg herself has the will to lead, not to mention the requisite commitment, intelligence and ferocious work ethic ... Sandberg is not just tough, however. She also comes across as compassionate, funny, honest and likable ... Sandberg’s advice to young women to be more ambitious, which can sound like a finger-wagging admonishment when taken out of context, is framed here in more encouraging terms ... Most important, Sandberg is willing to draw the curtain aside on her own insecurities ... Lean In is full of...slogans that ambitious women would do well to pin up on their wall ... But for the 229 missing female Fortune 500 leaders, as well as the hundreds of thousands of women who should be occupying lower-level leadership positions but aren’t, the problem is not leaning back but encountering a tipping point, a situation in which what was once a manageable and enjoyable work-family balance can no longer be sustained ... if in fact it’s the tipping points that tip women out of the work force, or at least prevent them from rising, then no amount of psychological coaching will make a difference ... Yet she chooses to concentrate only on the 'internal obstacles,' the ways in which women hold themselves back. This is unfortunate. As a feminist and a corporate leader, Sandberg seems ideally placed to ask the question that all too often gets lost amid the welter of talk about what women should do, what they should want and how they should behave. When it comes to ensuring that caregivers still have paths to the corner office, how can business lean in?
I dozed off twice while reading it. Most of the book is kind of blah, composed of platitudinous-corporate-speak-intermixed-with-pallid-anecdotes ... Even though, Oprah-esque, Sandberg resolves to speak her 'truth,' mostly mild confessions follow ... If Mary Wollstonecraft had written this tepidly, the first women's movement might have wilted before it ever took root ... But, but, but ... there are still some compelling reasons why, echoing some of Sandberg's supporters, I'd optimistically slide Lean In into my teenage daughter's bookshelf. First of all, the final two chapters of the book are more hard-hitting, riskier, less worried about alienating those readers, like stay-at-home moms, who may not share Sandberg's vision ... toward the end of Lean In, some of her intellectual charisma breaks through the blandness. Lean In is worth reading because, even though many of its observations about internalized sexism may be old hat to us older feminists, they're, sadly, still true ... Lean In may not be the most impassioned or entertaining feminist manifesto ever written and, sure, Sandberg is somewhat blinkered by her big bucks and privilege and inhibited by corporate caution. Yet, it's great to have a woman with such a platform speak up about sexism.
She is clearly smart, so it's a mystery how Sandberg is so short on common sense and has fallen for the oldest trick in the book. In Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, Sandberg shows very little awareness of herself or the ridiculous nature of the system that she so doggedly and determinedly embraces. Her book should carry a toxic warning ... she is is a handmaiden of a process that, since the 1960s, has been intent on customising feminism and turning it into a servant of the marketplace ... It's a message some may want to hear, but it's conservative and neoliberal and doesn't even pass as feminist. Lean in is a clunky, self-conscious phrase ... It's self-blame by any other name. What internalising does is deaden the collective muscle that, throughout history, has proved to be the only genuine igniter of change ... Lean In purports to be about some bright new dawn with Amazonian alpha females doing it better than the boys. On the contrary, its ethos is desperately old-fashioned ... as far as her values are concerned, she's leaning into a void.
... this is not a book that belongs on the shelf alongside Gloria Steinem and Susan Faludi. It belongs in the business section ... Sandberg has conducted no original research. Instead she deploys autobiographical anecdotes, backed up by social science studies and material from other people’s books. Some of the social science studies are dubious ... Lean In also offers not specific advice but more universal words of wisdom ... she is offering inspiring but generic suggestions that could have equally come from a fortune cookie ... Sandberg frequently contradicts herself ... there’s nothing new here ... read Lean In if you’re looking for some positive uplift, some stirring stories, and some advice about your job or your marriage. But don’t read it if you want to learn how to change the world.
With no small amount of self-deprecating humor, a massive quantity of facts and research, plus a liberal dose of very personal anecdotes, Sandberg forces each one of us—woman and man—to reexamine ourselves at work and in life, using a unique filter ... every single 'undoing' of a woman’s career is examined thoughtfully and with twenty-first-century gentleness and exposed ... thanks to Sandberg, the world just might be a different place.
... [a] provocative tome ... A new generation of women will learn from Sandberg’s experiences, and those of her own generation will be inspired by this thoughtful and practical book
