LEAN IN by Sheryl Sandberg

I started reading this book convinced that I would not like it and that I would disagree with everything Sandberg had to say, seeing as how her life choices are about as opposite of mine as you could get!  But, it turns, out I agreed completely with her general thesis, and even a fair amount of her application. Her argument, that women too often sit back and follow or wait for life to happen to them, is one I whole heartedly agree with. It's certainly a tendency I have fought all my life, and her plea that women step up and design and navigate life with purpose is spot on. Her insistence that life works better when we live in smoothly functioning partnerships and families is so obvious it's a shame that we need to be so blatantly reminded of that fact.  For that reason, I think it's a great read, even an important one and a book that I would love all the women and men I love and trust (i.e. you-all) to read, just so we could talk about it!

So, how do I disagree you ask?  Just with her other main assumption:  that true social equality will only be achieved when women fill half of the high-powered careers in business and positions in government.  I don't think that's the real or lasting solution to equality, it's just the obvious one (See Gladwell's David and Goliath.  I do understand that the real lasting solutions, with no fall-out to families, reside somewhere on the same planet has successfully living the Law of Consecration, and so it's tempting to want to agree with Sandberg. But when reading this book the realities of real family life are strangely absent and in their place are descriptions of small families with an excess of money and two parents who both have such high-powered jobs that they are essentially in complete control of their time with money to spare. In this world children generally have either one parent or the other available or, an expensive, best-money-can-buy caretaker, along with every other advantage offered to those in this tip top tier.  Sandberg's chapter on children and working parents uses carefully chosen statistics and studies to justify her position and feels so elitist that even though she acknowledges her advantages her protestations fall flat. In the end I am convinced that, while children are a close close second for her, her career and what it offers is truly the primary motivator and purpose in all she does.

Still, I would say read this book, and ladies, we need to Lean In!