I think about all the moments I just didn't believe in myself. Every
test I was sure I was about to fail, every job I wasn't sure I could do,"
she says. "It was after watching so many women quietly lean back, after
watching myself quietly lean back and miss opportunities, that I started to see
the pattern and started to talk about it.
Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of
Facebook, has caused a national discussion of women’s success (and failure) in
the workplace with her assertion that women often lose ground because they
“lean back,” that is, they choose to forego opportunities. In her upcoming book
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sandberg details how women can overcome what
could, I suppose, be called a pathological unwillingness to power. Women need,
per Sandberg, a Nietzschean kick in the butt to get out of their career torpor.
I am, in general, a strong believer in the value
and importance of hard work. I know, however, that no amount of hard work and
determination can overcome certain types of workplace barriers for some women. The historical and current states of gender,
class and racial inequality make
leaning in futile in some cases. This is chiefly because Sandberg’s lean in
notion relies upon the
primacy of ideas such as formal equality and rationality. Lean in ignores the
extent to which women have been excluded in shaping the substantive content of equality
norms. Workplace standards that are good for the gander are all too often bad for the goose. As to rationality, it has long been clear that many employers will persist in gender or other
types of discrimination even where they cause harm to their own interests. In
short, employers can and frequently
do cut off their own noses to spite their faces.
So, for the Sheryl Sandbergs of the
world I offer this paean to leaning in:
“Lean In Toward the Everlasting Glass” (Sung to the
Tune of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”)
If you seek a job advance or want your career
enhanced then
Lean in toward the everlasting glass
The glass is oh so thick
Work, wheedle, politick and
Lean in toward the everlasting glass
Lean in, lean in
Man up and break the glass that bars your way
Lean in, lean in
The glass ceiling shatters and you win the day
Forge those nerves of steel
Wear Manolo Blahnik heels and
Lean in toward the everlasting glass
Learn to negotiate, curse, spit, communicate and
Lean in toward the everlasting glass
Lean in, lean in
Man up and break the glass that bars your way
Lean in, lean in
The glass ceiling shatters and you win the day
Ignore class and race
Peer through, press your face and
Lean in toward the everlasting glass
You just talk the talk
Leave others to walk the walk
Lean in toward the everlasting glass
