Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” has become a hotly discussed book about women empowerment. Although I have not read her book I have watched her 210 TED talk, the precursor to the book, where she outlines her message for “Lean In” and suggests that women in the workplace should focus on three things to be successful: sit at the table, make their partner a real partner and not make decisions based on figure resource getting pregnant and allowing opportunities to pass them now because of the future constraints they will encounter when they are pregnant or with children, which she argues is wrong. Ultimately, Sandberg is suggesting that excuses in the workplace do not help you climb the corporate ladder, and until the moment you need to step out of the workplace to take care of a child, you should negotiate and work yourself up to the highest position so that you some leverage. This message was received well in her NY Times books review, also.
The most compelling response to this internal empowerment strategy Sandberg has employed was a review in Forbes magazine by Elaine Pofeldt entitled, “Don’t Lean In. Walk Out”. The article addresses women (although also applicable for men) who are not looking to work in “big corporation, government or big institution” and recommends “self-employment as a route for women to succeed and make a difference”(Pofeldt, 1).
Pofeldt discusses in her article that for women, no matter ho hard one works, the inequalities due to gender discrimination are too high, and for years women have been attributed with all the qualities that Sandberg promotes are not allowed into the “C-suites” and it is time to reassess whether that is the goal that they should be striving to achieve.
Sure, there are executives within giant firms and institutions, like Sandberg, who want women to get ahead- I think she’s sincere about this- but it’s time corporate women take a hard look at what’s really going on within their workplaces…. Legions of women are already leaning in to corporate gigs- and have been for decades- and not getting their due (Pofeldt 2-3).
In such instances self-entrepreneurship might be the best course of action the women who exhibit all these qualities and are not getting ahead. Additionally, what owning your own business/consultancy offers is more flexibility. With self-entrepreneurship, often times you work more hours than corporate business, but the time is more flexible. The work-life balance that is offered in some positions not only promote productivity but also get more hours out of workers since they don’t stop at 5pm, and often start much earlier than 9am.
Sandberg’s advice is sound- don’t give up too early, have confidence and respect yourself to take a place at the table and have an egalitarian relationship- it just does not always help you raise to level of CEO and has you working very hard in workplaces that sometimes do not appreciate you. What Pofeldt offers the reader is another environment, where Sandberg’s advice would still apply but the boss you would be working so hard to provide for would be yourself.
What I have gained from these videos and articles is that there are a multitude of environments where one can work, and but often similar qualities that are required to be successful. To tie this into this weeks readings we could say that Sandberg’s suggestions for success in the workplace provide parts of a meaningful framework, and through application Pofeldt is providing theories by changing variables and operationalizing the framework in different environments (Munger).
The question remains for me, whether our education system and business system are set up in a way that people are to fill positions that are made available to them, or if they are to be enterprising and develop their own positions from their expertise and passions? Last term we discussed whether people were fully trained to fill the positions that are offered to them, if we were educating people to be able to fill the jobs available, and if the government needed to supply re-training to better match people out of work to open positions. This line of reasoning makes me wonder if we expect people to be moldable, and fill positions open to them. If this is characteristic of our economy, it would make sense that economic growth is really the only kind of growth available to our citizenry. However, if people are to fully develop into experts based on their own passions and when opportunities for employment are not available to them, they create their own enterprises, this would create a very different picture of our economy, education system, and people. I wish to explore these questions and ideas in the next weeks and throughout this course.
Resources
Munger, M. C. (2000). Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts and Practices. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Pofeldt, E. Don’t Lean In. Walk Out. (2013, March 10). Forbes Magazine. Pp 1-3 http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2013/03/10/dont-lean-in-walk-out/
Sandberg, S. Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders. (2010 December) TEDtalks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4
Slaughter, Ann Marie. Yes You Can: Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’. (2013, March 7). NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/sheryl-sandbergs-lean-in.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The most compelling response to this internal empowerment strategy Sandberg has employed was a review in Forbes magazine by Elaine Pofeldt entitled, “Don’t Lean In. Walk Out”. The article addresses women (although also applicable for men) who are not looking to work in “big corporation, government or big institution” and recommends “self-employment as a route for women to succeed and make a difference”(Pofeldt, 1).
Pofeldt discusses in her article that for women, no matter ho hard one works, the inequalities due to gender discrimination are too high, and for years women have been attributed with all the qualities that Sandberg promotes are not allowed into the “C-suites” and it is time to reassess whether that is the goal that they should be striving to achieve.
Sure, there are executives within giant firms and institutions, like Sandberg, who want women to get ahead- I think she’s sincere about this- but it’s time corporate women take a hard look at what’s really going on within their workplaces…. Legions of women are already leaning in to corporate gigs- and have been for decades- and not getting their due (Pofeldt 2-3).
In such instances self-entrepreneurship might be the best course of action the women who exhibit all these qualities and are not getting ahead. Additionally, what owning your own business/consultancy offers is more flexibility. With self-entrepreneurship, often times you work more hours than corporate business, but the time is more flexible. The work-life balance that is offered in some positions not only promote productivity but also get more hours out of workers since they don’t stop at 5pm, and often start much earlier than 9am.
Sandberg’s advice is sound- don’t give up too early, have confidence and respect yourself to take a place at the table and have an egalitarian relationship- it just does not always help you raise to level of CEO and has you working very hard in workplaces that sometimes do not appreciate you. What Pofeldt offers the reader is another environment, where Sandberg’s advice would still apply but the boss you would be working so hard to provide for would be yourself.
What I have gained from these videos and articles is that there are a multitude of environments where one can work, and but often similar qualities that are required to be successful. To tie this into this weeks readings we could say that Sandberg’s suggestions for success in the workplace provide parts of a meaningful framework, and through application Pofeldt is providing theories by changing variables and operationalizing the framework in different environments (Munger).
The question remains for me, whether our education system and business system are set up in a way that people are to fill positions that are made available to them, or if they are to be enterprising and develop their own positions from their expertise and passions? Last term we discussed whether people were fully trained to fill the positions that are offered to them, if we were educating people to be able to fill the jobs available, and if the government needed to supply re-training to better match people out of work to open positions. This line of reasoning makes me wonder if we expect people to be moldable, and fill positions open to them. If this is characteristic of our economy, it would make sense that economic growth is really the only kind of growth available to our citizenry. However, if people are to fully develop into experts based on their own passions and when opportunities for employment are not available to them, they create their own enterprises, this would create a very different picture of our economy, education system, and people. I wish to explore these questions and ideas in the next weeks and throughout this course.
Resources
Munger, M. C. (2000). Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts and Practices. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Pofeldt, E. Don’t Lean In. Walk Out. (2013, March 10). Forbes Magazine. Pp 1-3 http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2013/03/10/dont-lean-in-walk-out/
Sandberg, S. Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders. (2010 December) TEDtalks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4
Slaughter, Ann Marie. Yes You Can: Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’. (2013, March 7). NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/books/review/sheryl-sandbergs-lean-in.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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