Lean In Sheryl Sandberg

First chapter titled "The leadership Ambition Gap: What would you do if you weren't afraid?" of the book lays out some of the complex challenges women face and each subsequent 10 chapters focuses on an adjustment or difference that we can make ourselves: increasing our self confidence.  They are titled as Sit on the table; success and likeablity; It's a Jungle gym, not a ladder; Are you my Mentor?; Seek and speak your truth; Don't leave Before you leave; Make your partner a real partner; The Myth of doing it all; Let's start talking about it and working through toward Equality. 

She puts forth that there is no one definition of success or happiness, and not every women want career or children, and do not advocate that all should have the same objective. We each have to chart our own unique course and define which goals fit our lives, values and dreams. Whatever we do, we must lean in, and increasing the number of women in positions of power is a necessary element of true equality. 

Sandberg devotes only three of the book’s 11 chapters to work/family balance. The rest are about how women can take charge of their own careers and push forward at a time when gender bias is more alive and well than most of us may want to admit. 

A book that has a powerful message but that is also full of personal vulnerability and first-hand anecdotes, packed with statistics and footnoted studies that back her points. She writes about her divorce in her 20s and how she felt it signified a personal failing, about how, as a girl, she felt ashamed when people called her “bossy,” and how she was racked with self-doubt while a college student, even though she was near the top of her class at Harvard.

1. It’s incredibly difficult to manage both career and motherhood, even before you give birth.

2. She considers herself a feminist who benefits from the struggles of the activists who battled for women’s rights.

3. She points out that men still run the world.

4. She gets it about women’s compensation.

5. She believes the feminist revolution has stalled.

6. She argues convincingly that internal obstacles hold women back.

7. She makes a strong contrarian point about mentors.

8. Women should ask their partners to do at least half the parenting work.

9. It’s important to have this conversation. -  talk about getting ahead and what it means to seek leadership roles.

This book was 43 rd of 2020.