"... and asking for more help from their spouses at home.
Now, her departure from Facebook as one of the highest-ranking female executives in corporate America marks
the end of an era in the brand of self-empowerment feminism she championed as a critical tool to fight sexism in the workplace.... Her advice to women who wanted to ascend higher in their careers was
simply to 'lean in,' or be more assertive at their jobs, which became a cultural phenomenon.... 'There isn’t another Sheryl.'
Over the years, Sandberg has struggled to retain her voice as a champion of women as Facebook....
The movement to get more women into better roles in corporate America has stalled in recent years.... Sandberg’s image as a corporate feminist was first burnished after the 2010 TED Talk, in which she chronicled what she saw as the reasons women were still struggling to compete with men in moving up the corporate latter...."
From "Sheryl Sandberg departure marks the end of an era for women in tech/Silicon Valley is losing one of its highest-profile female leaders" (WaPo).
Here's that TED Talk from 12 years ago.
I blogged about the "Lean In" movement back in 2012 — "'Leaning in' evolves into coffee-sipping wishful supportiveness":
If you can bear to keep reading you'll see that there's a Lean In Foundation where you can register your "Lean In" circle and there are actually 7,000 registered circles. This is all very nice for the Chief Leaner In Sheryl Sandberg, she of the book "Lean In." It's her branding. You want to get her branding on you? That furthers her leaning in, but what does it do for you — you, over there in that circle in a coffee shop getting lost in the evolving cross-currents of mutual support?
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The tradition for women doing jobs that interest men and not women is to form a Women's Workplace Issues committee, which is more in line with women's traditional interests. Lean in seems to codify that.
There's no women's workplace issues committee in day care.
My daughter experienced one of those Lean In Circles in California. Women in late 20s/early 30s. Said within a few weeks the Circle devolved from career support into discussions about kids, clothes, cooking, etc....normal pedestrian concerns.
For vast !majority of people, climbing the corporate ladder is of low priority.
There was also Elizabeth Holmes. She championed women as a Silicon Valley CEO, and she definitely promoted herself, oops themselves, in the workplace. Whatever happened to her? Oh yeah. Maybe the journalist could focus on Sheryl's accomplishments that got her to COO that don't involve her just being a woman.
Leaning in was replaced by increasing the size your social media accounts.
You can’t take it with you, but you can have it displayed prominently on your headstone.
I never understood, or frankly even thought much about, the whole "lean in" thing. It sounded so trite. Now, reading more about it, I see that it actually was.
What a concept - succeed in the workplace by working hard, by finding allies and supporters whom you support in turn, and by asking for more help at home! Was there any successful woman who wasn't doing these things? Any successful person?
The Lean In Circle thing sounds like nothing more than a codified version of having lunch with your other friends who work, exchanging information about how you're doing and what you're doing, and seeing if you can help one another with advice and mutual business relationships. Surprise - men do this too! They just don't "register" their friend groups until they get to conference size.
Jeane Kirkpatrick could not be reached for comment.
DiFi retires this summer and the Guv appoints SS as Senator. SS will be the Senator for Facebook. Reward for stealing the election for Brandon.
isn't the Best Advice for women who wanted to ascend higher in their careers to just be
BORN WITH A PENIS???
I mean, Real chix have dicks.. IF you wanted to succeed in a man's world; why weren't you Born One?
Elizabeth Holmes is a better example for young women with corporate aspirations than Sheryl Sandberg.
Holmes started her own company. Sandberg’s boss was young enough to be her son.
At school, you can get ahead by showing up and doing what's assigned. At work, that's not enough. School doesn't do enough to explain this, but this insight shouldn't rise to the level of a cultural phenomenon, either.
Kind of like the Amway of women's empowerment.
"women were still struggling to compete with men"
So are other men (and presumably the differently labeled too).
If you want to compete, compete.
If you want to try to get ahead without competing, yammer.
What does it say that when men decided to be women they got people changing pronouns, and sports doing the unthinkable in order to accommodate them, while women who wanted to be men… never really got off the ground.
#ImJustSaying
Kind of like the Amway of women's empowerment.
Not while I'm drinking coffee please!
Thing is, I'm a little sympathetic... I was the only woman working on oil and gas rigs in the Sacramento Valley when I first got out of school, and it would have been nice to know I had supportive colleagues who could understand my particular challenges. The other mudloggers and many of the toolpushers, mudmen, and company men were supportive enough, but the other mudloggers didn't have to deal with the particular kinds of hazing and workplace situations I did. My now husband, for instance, who worked on some of the same rigs I did, never had to sit through an awkward talking-to by the toolpusher asking him to please wear a tighter bra so he wouldn't distract his guys so much.
(He did, however, receive a proposal of marriage from one [male] toolpusher for the quality of his coffee.)
How did I handle it? Tighter bra, looser shirt. I was - I repeat - the only woman out there, working 12 on, 12 off around crews of roughnecks. I might've been annoyed and embarrassed, but I wasn't stupid.
Unfortunately, women simply aren't cut out for some jobs/careers, and men can't handle many of the tasks performed by women. Do men gripe about that?
More hype from the hype machine.
A more interesting story: Elon Musk says that Tesla workers who want to work remotely can do so, but they also have to put in 40 hours minimum per week onsite.
That guy is a national treasure.
Lean in... is a model of social intrusion to be noticed. Women should follow the advice of their parents, and stand up, be productive, and never take a knee, beg.
Sheryl Sandberg is now available to run Twitter.
Leaning Tower of Pisa >>> Preening Tower of Lisa = Lean In womens empowerment
Leaning Tower of Pisa >>> Preening Tower of Lisa = Lean In womens empowerment
The pitch that men can be women is so successful they got the young thoroughly convinced men can get pregnant 🫃
Holy mother of Jesus.
Sandberg sure rode that wave; but like most corporate-cultural waves, it’s ephemeral. Now all the ladies are paddling their boards in circles, shivering in their wet suits and wondering where the good surf has gone.
"Lean In" competes with Kamala's "Bend Over".
Jordan Peterson is the address for serious discussion of this issue. A remarkable fraction of high-powered women quit, because that just isn't what they want for their lives. My daughter did, just as she was being offered considerable promotions.
The amazing thing is that so many men do not.
I don't get the knocks on Sheryl Sandberg. She is and was an inspirational figure commanding the operations of one of the most transformative companies of all time. You can argue facebook policies, good/evil, etc. all day long - doesn't take away what she was in that role.
She used her position to elevate and encourage women in traditionally male-dominated areas, tech being predominant. Good for her.
The retirement/exit here isn't the news - the news is what comes next.
I thought one climbed the ladder by working hard and demonstrating high value to the organization.
Of course, in our new woke world "high value" has a different meaning. It seems to have little to do with productivity and making profits for the organization. It has more to with do with "diversity".
I've you've ever ridden a big city subway during rush hour, many people race from one train to a connecting train. The next train often arrives and then departs in a couple minutes, so missing it can prolong a commute by 10 to 30 minutes. Men in business suits tend to be fastest racers and the most aggressive. Once in a while a competitive career-minded woman tries to hang with the men and races across platforms, stairs, and escalators.
Many men WALK past the racing women. Easily. Their typical non-racing shoes don't help either.
This discussion reveals biological differences and tendencies. Men tend to focus on tasks and projects while women tend focus on communities and raising children as nurturance projects. "Lean in circles" is just window dressing on evergreen, routine, and predictable sex differences.
Many, many political tensions would evaporate if the left incorporated biology into an evidence-driven "nature plus nurture" analytical model. They currently fantasize about "blank slates" and overcoming biology with both women and transgendered persons, but the role of biology has been proven 10,000,000 ways and 10,000,000,000 times.
I like it when women lean in so you can get a deeper look at her cleavage.
Is SpaceX chopped liver?
Gwynne E. Shotwell
President, Chief Operating Officer
"The movement to get more women into better roles in corporate America"
Assumption: there are corporations, and those corporations offer roles.
Left unsaid: that any women should dare to build a new corporation. Are there any women founders? True entrepreneurs?
Nearly all female billionaires got their money from others, via inheritance or divorce settlements. Gina Rinehart or Susanne Klatten, some Chinese are exceptions--the 4% of billionaires who are "self-made" women.
Women are good at leaning into the money their men made.
Lean in (i.e. intrusion, me too), lean on, is a poorly conceived avoidance of equal and complementary.
While Elizabeth Holmes might be the sine qua nono of modern female corporate accomplishment, just remember that Lizzie Borden had a significant impact on American women in society over a century ago without ever holding a corporate job. Lean in if you must, but carry an axe, too, just in case.
David Begley said...
DiFi retires this summer and the Guv appoints SS as Senator. SS will be the Senator for Facebook. Reward for stealing the election for Brandon.
Hey, has a newly minted Senator with a compelling story ever successfully run for president?
Seems familiar somehow.
Anyway, the Dems will be shopping around in '24.
You canNOT ascend until you learn to spell “ladder” correctly. Fer chrissakes…
Sandberg lost me completely when she passionately advocated that women not have children at all. She grudgingly allowed that, if one is so misguided as to insist on procreating, limit yourself to one child only.
FOAD, you narrow-minded patronizing power-mad woman, for presuming that success in the business world is the ultimate happiness for all women/people. You just know that she throws up a little in the back of her mouth, like Angelica Huston does in the movie Witches, when she says the word "children."
From now on, my first line to any woman I talk to about dating is going to be:
"Do you have your own money?"
The Old Left (even the old New Left) might have said that women "leaning into" capitalism, was capitalism leaning very heavily into women's lives, a scheme to make everyone run the corporate rat race and to make women think that they were "empowering" themselves when they were surrendering their lives to the economic system.
just another dem who wants to control lives. Bet on it.
My wife is a few years older than Sandberg and is a very successful executive, of course not nearly as well-known as Sandberg.
But she got to her position by being very smart and working very hard.
Investors and employers will recognize and reward people who put in the time and get results...
How many have seen "Disclosure?" One of Michael Douglas best movies. Every time I read about these feminist executives, I think of it.
The "Lean In" concept has been further watered down among millennials to mean support for something generally. This support is usually limited to a favorable post on social media (e.g., all the black boxes on Instagram in support of Black Lives Matter after George Floyd's death), but not anything that would take more energy or involvement. That seems to be an appropriate legacy for the Facebook executive.
She’s being pushed out. More time with family and philanthropy is corporate speak for that. Now if women are going to have equal status with men in executive ranks, they will have to take the good with the bad. Facebook had not exactly been a high flyer recently.
Succeed in the work place.
I challenge you, the individual to define that. However you can not use money as a metric.
Chase, power, prestige status, if that is your thing. But do not then claim, chasing and failing to achieve those goals is a failure.
If you attain those nebulous things because you keep improving the product or service in your purview, you will have succeeded.
Blocking and tackling is how you win the championship.
Tom Brady did not set out to be a great quarterback, Instead worked hard on every small aspect of his life, from his diet, and sleep, and meditation. To conditioning, weight training, and agility. To watching film for hours more than his peers. To countless repetitions of taking a snap without handing off or throwing a pass.
Great NBA players spend as much time working on there foot work, as time actually shooting.
The harder you work, the more good luck comes your way.
The same crap is promoted as "business networking" under a dozen or more names. The basic scam proceeds as follows:
1) Recruit a local promoter, often a real estate broker. They know everybody and they're competent salesmen.
2) Invite several prospects to lunch at a restaurant with private dining
3) Give 'em the spiel -- Network once a week to promote your business/career! (Attendance mandatory. The restaurant will give you the space free.)
4)The fish that bite will pay $500 or more per annum for some super-anodyne Norman Vincent Peale hogwash published bi-monthly. Nice work if you can get it.
Heil Sandberg.
I don't want to "lean in". You might give me covid.
Did WaPo really print "corporate latter"? I'm cracking up.
My mother, who was a successful lawyer, had a motto do. It was "Do what you want, no one is stopping you." She also highly recommended being self employed as an aid to work/life balance.
Face it. A male organized large business is almost always going to beat the female one long term, because it is going to be more efficient. Female centric businesses end up with too much talk-talk to be efficient. Not everyone, down to the lowliest Secretary, needs to have their say and feel respected in order to determine what to do. Male oriented pyramid structures scale much better.
And in these structures, in these businesses, women are often at a disadvantage because they are less likely to blow their own horn, because the men they are competing with, esp in the higher management positions, will be. So “leaning in” is probably a good strategy for women, if they want to rise very far in these companies. My problem with this whole thing here is the implied assumption that this woman is somehow failing in her duty to the sisterhood by retiring. After a certain point, she owes it to herself, and to any family she might have, to take her winnings, her accumulated fortune, retire, and enjoy It, at least for awhile.
"Shotwell" is the head of Musk's Mars launch company?
Another of Elon's little jokes?
I want to scream. I want to vomit.
SS now says her resignation was prompted by the possible repeal of Roe and Casey by SCOTUS.
She's running.
Of course the business cable channels have been full of the Sandberg resignation news but they all end with the question, what did really every really accomplish? The universal response is a shrug of the shoulders.
Asking the public to evaluate your work accomplishments is beyond bizarre. Nobody worthwhile has time for that, so why even bother? I'll remain agnostic as to the quality of her work.
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