Leaning In

Thanks to our wonderful friends at the Levo League, I had the great, great pleasure of attending one of Sheryl Sandberg’s stops on her tour for her new book “Leaning In”.

Oblivious, beforehand, to the media whirlwind circulating the COO of Facebook, , and her career, I quickly found myself mesmerized by her candor and anecdotes. I am guilty of stifling myself in my own career between referring to myself and other 20- somethings as “girls” and not “women”. But think about it- how foreign does it sound to you saying “I hung out with three other women last night.”?

Sandberg’s book is what some are calling a “feminist manifesto” but I see it as a wake up call to women our age who are sitting in contentment. We hold degrees, we work full- time, so we think we’re equal with our male counterparts. We’re not.

We’re at the age where promotions, title changes, and new jobs are a dime a dozen. And that’s where the men separate from the pack. They become the senior VPs and chief revenue officers. Men hold 479 spots in the Fortune 500 CEOs. 479 out of 500!

We are blessed with the basic civil rights many of our sisters before us did not have. But that doesn’t mean the battle is over.

I highly recommend this book to every last Sweet Lemon lady reading this. Listen to her TED talk and listen to the ambition in your head.

My favorite soundbyte from the Lean In event came as Sandberg told a tale of how little girls are called bossy when directing and organizing childhood play, never boys. And it’s not a compliment.

After polling the crowd of women, Sandberg proclaimed- “I’m doing this for every little girl who was called bossy on the playground.”

Lean in and sit at the table.

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