Book Review: Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg

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I am generally not a fan of self-help kind of books, and a feminist one at that, would definitely be a no-no. At least that's what I always thought. But then there are good self-help books too, so its definitely not right to just discard an entire genre.

I have read two such books, which I think at least point out to the right problems, even if they may not be able to give the perfect solution! One of these is, 'Men are from Mars, Women from Venus' and the second one is 'Lean In'. And I just assumed that to be the truth:)

But then recently, I realised that Lean In, which to me feels like a good book tends to polarise women a lot. And hence, I thought of submitting my two cents in support of the book.

This is not a review, but just my synthesis of what I think Sheryl is saying in the book (or at least what I take away from it, which makes it seem logical to me...) and which answers some of the criticism that comes its way...

  1. IF women want to focus on their careers, they need to understand that some skills which are required to do well in the currently male-dominated work environment, do not come naturally to them. Therefore women may need to make an extra effort to overcome that, e.g., being confident of one's own abilities, being assertive in taking on new responsibilities (and not shying away as women usually do).
  2. Nowhere does it say ever that women need to be competitive and bossy and focus on their careers and have super hectic life. All it says that IF you do focus on your career, doing these things will be helpful
  3. Also, it does not support any of the changes that woman need to do to succeed in the workplace, it just suggests that given the current situation, it would help women. Its only needed till there is a change in the workplace cultures. When the split between men and women becomes 50-50, women may not need to change and make the extra effort to do stuff differently..


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