Book Report: Lean In

I'm going to start this off by saying I really enjoyed this book. I heard about it in passing one day and decided to pick it up. I read through it pretty fast, it is a short read, and was really inspired by what Sheryl Sandberg had to say.

A week or so later I picked up a Real Simple magazine and for some reason decided to read the Editor's note in the beginning. It seems she did not like Sheryl's words of wisdom and decided to have that be the month's message.

This isn't another book about women rising up and beating down men and/or having to be manly to get what they want and where they want in their careers. This book is about working with what the current workforce has to offer but also pushing the culture as well as ourselves as women. It is full of information about what women do differently than men in the workplace, especially higher up in the corporate hierarchy (by the way, it's not a ladder, it's a jungle gym, and going up isn't always the best move) and how we can make more space for ourselves and our needs whether they be time with the family, or even a family. 

The editor of the magazine was saying that maybe we don't all want to be CEOs or COOs or anything that high up, and while I agree that we should be able to go for whatever level we want to go for without criticism, I feel like she may have missed the point in Sheryl's words. I don't think Sheryl is saying that every women needs to be gunning for this top positions, or that they should even want to. When I read the book I got the message that if we should ever want these positions we shouldn't be afraid to go for them, that even if we want a child or a family or anything else that we should keep going instead of stepping out of the game before it even really starts. It's about giving women more room to want these things, both a family and an important/demanding career. I did not see a point in her book where she thought that being a stay at home mom was a bad thing should that be what the woman chooses. In fact there is a lot of talk about competition and judgement in the female world about kids vs no kids, working vs not working and how it's not helping us at all. If we are doing the best we can with what we have, and aren't forgetting ourselves for the sakes of our children I think we'll be doing alright.

Before I go on a long diatribe about mom wars and female on female judging I will just say that this book was awesome and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to think about their career or the careers of women in general. 

Did you read Lean In? What did you think about it?

xoxo