16. Sarah Dinolfo, Christine Silva, and Nancy M. Carter, High Potentials in the Leadership Pipeline: Leaders Pay It Forward, Catalyst (2012), 7, http://www.catalyst.org/publication/534/42/high-potentials-in-the-pipeline-leaders-pay-it-forward.
17. Janet Aschkenasy, “How a ‘Good Old Girls’ Network at Merrill Advanced the Careers of Four Women,” Wall Street Technology Association, July 16, 2012, http://news.wsta.efinancialcareers.com/newsandviews_item/wpNewsItemId-106965.
18. Kunal Modi, “Man Up on Family and Workplace Issues: A Response to Anne-Marie Slaughter,” The Huffington Post, July 12, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kunal-modi/.
19. Joan Williams, “Slaughter vs. Sandberg: Both Right,” The Huffington Post, June 22, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-williams/ann-marie-slaughter_b_1619324.html.
20. Debora Spar, “Why Do Successful Women Feel So Guilty?,” The Atlantic, June 28, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/why-do-successful-women-feel-so-guilty/259079/.
21. Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Women and Paid Sick Days: Crucial for Family Well-Being, fact sheet, February 2007.
22. Lynda Laughlin, Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns of First-Time Mothers: 1961–2008, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P70–128 (October 2011), 9, http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p70–128.pdf.
23. Human Rights Watch, Failing Its Families: Lack of Paid Leave and Work-Family Supports in the US (2011), http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0211webwcover.pdf.
24. Ellen Bravo, “ ‘Having It All?’—The Wrong Question to Ask for Most Women,” Women’s Media Center, June 26, 2012, http://www.womensmediacenter.com/feature/entry/having-it-allthe-wrong-question-for-most-women.
25. Nicholas D. Kristof, “Women Hurting Women,” New York Times, September 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/kristof-women-hurting-women.html?_r=0.
26. A study of panel data from the EEOC of more than twenty thousand firms from 1990 to 2003 found that an increase in the percentage of top women managers is associated with a subsequent rise in the percentage of females in midlevel managerial roles within firms. This study also found that while women at the top have a positive influence on the advancement of lower level women, this influence diminished over time. See Fiden Ana Kurtulus and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, “Do Female Top Managers Help Women to Advance? A Panel Study Using EEO-1 Records,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 639, no. 1 (2012): 173–97. A study of more than eight hundred U.S. firms found that when more women sat on the executive compensation committee of the board, the gender gap in executive pay was smaller. This study found, however, that having a female CEO was not associated with a reduction in the gender gap in pay. See Taekjin Shin, “The Gender Gap in Executive Compensation: The Role of Female Directors and Chief Executive Officers,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 639, no. 1 (2012): 258–78. A study of seventy-two large U.S. corporations found that having a higher proportion of lower-level female managers in the 1980s and early 1990s was positively associated with having more work-life HR policies in 1994 and with having a larger share of senior management roles held by women in 1999. See George F. Dreher, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Effects of Sex Ratios and Work-Life Programs on Female Leadership at the Top,” Human Relations 56, no. 5 (2003): 541–62.
27. Gloria: In Her Own Words, HBO documentary, directed by Peter Kunhardt (2011).
A Note About the Author
Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Facebook. Prior to working at Facebook, she was vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google and chief of staff at the United States Treasury Department. She lives in Northern California with her husband and their two children.
Join the Lean In Community to continue the discussion at www.facebook.com/leaninorg or www.leanin.org.
Sheryl Sandberg is donating all of her income from this book to establish Lean In, a nonprofit organization that encourages women to lean in to their ambitions.
For more information, please visit www.aaknopf.com
Lean In
By Sheryl Sandberg
Reading Group Guide
ABOUT THIS READING GROUP GUIDE
The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Sheryl Sandberg—Facebook COO, ranked eighth on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business—has become one of America’s most galvanizing leaders, and an icon for millions of women juggling work and family. In Lean In, she urges women to take risks and seek new challenges, to find work that they love, and to remain passionately engaged with that work at the highest levels throughout their lives.
Lean In—Sheryl Sandberg’s provocative, inspiring book about women and power—grew out of an electrifying TEDTalk she gave in 2010 in which she expressed her concern that progress for women in achieving major leadership positions had stalled. The talk became a phenomenon and has since been viewed nearly two million times. In Lean In, she fuses humorous personal anecdotes, singular lessons on confidence and leadership, and practical advice for women based on research, data, her own experiences, and the experiences of other women of all ages. Sandberg has an uncanny gift for cutting through layers of ambiguity that surround employed women, and in Lean In she grapples, piercingly, with the great questions of modern life. Her message to women is overwhelmingly positive. She is a trailblazing model for the ideas she so passionately espouses, and she’s on the pulse of a topic that has never been more relevant.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What does “lean in” mean? Why do you think women need to be urged to lean in?
2. The first three words in the book are “I got pregnant.” What does this signal about the kind of business book Lean In will be?
3. When Sandberg says, “The promise of equality is not the same as true equality” (this page), what does she mean? Have you found this statement to be accurate?
4. Why is “ambitious” often considered a derogatory word when used to describe a woman but complimentary when used to describe a man?
5. In chapter 2, Sandberg discusses the impostor syndrome: feeling like a fraud, fearing discovery with each success. Why do women feel this way more often than men do? What causes the gender gap?
6. Sandberg believes that there are times when you can reach for opportunities even if you are not sure you are quite ready to take them on—and then learn by doing. Have you ever tried this? What have you tried? What was the result?
7. What did you learn from the anecdote on this page, about keeping your hand up?
8. Why did Sandberg respond so negatively to being named the fifth most powerful woman in the world?
9. When negotiating, Sandberg tells women to use the word “we” rather than “I.” Why does the choice of pronoun make such a difference?
10. On this page, Sandberg says, “I understand the paradox of advising women to change the world by adhering to biased rules and expectations.” How do you feel about her advice?
11. What’s your take on Sandberg’s suggestion that we think of the path to a satisfying career as a jungle gym rather than a ladder?
12. Sandberg argues that taking risks can be important in building a career. How have you approached risk-taking in your life?
13. Sandberg argues that mentorship relationships rarely happen from asking strangers to mentor you, but rather from an opportunity to engage with someone in a more substantive way. How has mentorship worked in your own experience?
14. Peo
ple who believe that they speak “the truth” and not “their truth” can be very silencing of others, Sandberg says on this page. What does she mean by this?
15. When considering employment after motherhood, Sandberg suggests that women shift the calculations and measure the current cost of child care against their salary ten years from now. Why is this a more effective perspective than just considering current costs? If you’re a parent, would this change your attitude toward employment and money?
16. In chapter 9, Sandberg blasts the myth of “having it all,” or even “doing it all,” and points to a poster on the wall at Facebook as a good motto: “Done is better than perfect.” (this page) What perfectionist attitudes have you dropped in order to find contentment?
17. Sandberg and her husband have different viewpoints about parenting: She worries about taking too much time away from their kids, while he’s proud of the time he does spend with them. Would it help women to adopt an attitude more like his?
18. In chapter 10, Sandberg discusses how the term “feminist” has taken on negative connotations. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why?
19. Discuss this assertion: “Staying quiet and fitting in may have been all the first generations of women who entered corporate America could do; in some cases, it might still be the safest path. But this strategy is not paying off for women as a group. Instead, we need to speak out, identify the barriers that are holding women back, and find solutions” (this page).
20. In the book’s final chapter, Sandberg talks about the need to work together to create equality—to allow women to thrive in the workplace, and to allow men to participate proudly in the home and child rearing. What steps can you take right now to begin to make this happen?
SUGGESTED READING
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel; I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This by Kate White; Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman by Gail Evans; How Remarkable Women Lead by Joanna Barsh; I’d Rather Be in Charge by Charlotte Beers.
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