Sandberg Reading Response

Sandberg’s book Lean In stood out to me right away because it uses Facebook, the social network everyone knows about, to get a point across. Facebook is such a successful enterprise, it is a wonder there are not more literature out there that brings its policies into play in other aspects of our lives. A website that appeals to so many people around the world, all with different interests and lifestyles must show that they are doing something right. Sandberg goes into using terminology that Facebook uses to motivate its staff, such as “Done is better than perfect” and “Be bold.” This shows how word choice is so important when influencing large groups of people. This assertive but encouraging vocabulary is bound to stay in the minds of the women Sandberg is hoping to target. Facebook was not a model in the sense that it had an equal distribution of genders and wages, because it had an all male board until 2012 and women still get paid significantly less than women. Sandberg just brings in what she has learned from working with the people side of Facebook and the top-down method of change. The key difference between what Sandberg is calling for and other feminist thought out there, is she calls for women to overcome “women’s universal internal resistance to career velocity.” This goes back to everyone being their own worst critic. According to her, being “in” is all that matters, there is not use in complaining over where exactly you are as long as you took the job. I agree with this in the sense that there is no logic in passing a job over pay or position when being in the company itself is a well-deserved privilege. There will be chances to climb up the corporate ladder and make it easier for other women to get to the point that you are. Sandberg is calling for women leaders to pave the way for others in the field.  I do believe that eventually self change will lead to systemic change for when everyone is changing, major corporations do not want to be left in the dust.