Sandberg, the COO of Facebook (and formerly a top exec at Google), has written an inspiring, engaging book that challenges women to recognize, examine and question the ways they unconciously hold themselves back--the way they keep themselves away from the discussion table instead of leaning in, the way they hesitate instead of jumping in. She mixes research with anecdote; there's something of Malcolm Gladwell's style to it. Most of what she has to say is very smart, although some of what she has discovered along the way (her "aha" moments) seem a bit simplistic (like when there are two people in a room, they each have a separate, but valid truth). I have to say that her story about coming from a high school in Florida ("think Fast Times at Ridgemont High") to Harvard resonated and made me laugh: she tells about how she's sitting in a class and the professor asks them if they've read two books--I think they were the Odyssey and the Aeneid; a bunch of kids raise their hands (she doesn't). Then he asks if they've read them in the original. The original what? she wonders. That was so like my experience ... getting to Cornell just miles and miles behind other students.
But I loved the book, tore through it in an evening. I think it should be required reading for all young women, somewhere around age 20, as they're beginning to find their place in the world and claim their autonomy. I'll ask my daughter to read it eventually.
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Read this book. Then give it to a young woman you love as she heads out into the world. No matter what she chooses to do with her life, this book will help.
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