Why Is Everyone Attacking Sheryl Sandberg?
The premise of the Lean In Circle is simple: once a month, groups of a dozen or so women gather for education and conversation, and snacks, in a bid to forge collective assault on the glass ceiling. Rallying the charge is Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and career woman extra-extra-extraordinaire. The program’s launch has been coordinated with the March 11th release of Sandberg’s book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.
But Sandberg herself has faced criticism for asking too much of women already stretched thin. She’s been called everything from elitist and out of touch to just plain lucky. Her outsize wealth, status, and alpha friends (Oprah!) make her the wrong person to lead an everywoman charge, opponents say, and besides, women don’t need to pony up yet more ambition, or time, or to do still more work, in the face of a broken and unreceptive system. And if someone hasn’t already taken shots at her diet and her outfits, that’ll probably be next.
Really, ladies? We’re going to hate on this? Already?
So let me get this straight. We won’t talk about banding together on a micro-scale to create undeniable force on a macro-scale because the system is flawed, and so is Sandberg. We aren’t interested in the self-made woman in the corner office with the glass floor telling us the secret of breaking through the ceiling. No thank you, lustrous mentor with a proven record of success who lacks a diamond grill only by choice.
I can’t even.
OK, so not every woman at the top is a guaranteed good leader. And Sandberg does have some cultural blind spots. But what’s the alternative, again? Are we really holding our collective breath for definitive social change to rain down from on high and the comfortable few to scooch down on the Bench of Progress? (Apropos of nothing, have you SEEN Lincoln?)
Let’s nitpick the movement policies, maybe. (Is the strangely depressing “always a happy ending” rule really a good idea?) But if there are things to criticize, the size of Sandberg’s home, the state of her cuticles, or any of the things that accompany the massive career success she is trying to share with us, HELLO are not among them. Why are we seeing her achievement and registering “obstacle” and not “goal”? Criticizing Sandberg for her desire to invest her time sharing information—or for being “lucky” (as if luck develops in a vacuum)—is roughly as productive as taking shots at your prom queen-valedictorian tutor. Look, if you don’t want her help, at least don’t slash her tires when she’s on her way to my house.
Whatever the movement achieves on a grand scale, can a personal investment in relationship-building and a habit of self-examination ever do us harm? And in the end, if the movement slingshots just a handful of Sandberg-esque leading ladies into the misty corporate stratosphere, and they each hire a handful more, and so on and so on—wake me, I’m dreaming!—hasn’t it been a success then, too, bad lady bosses of our future and all?
In conclusion, I obviously drank Kool Aid they aren’t even serving yet. But what do you think—is Sandberg the right person to lead a Lean In movement? Is a social media-driven movement the best way to tackle this issue? Will you join a Lean In Circle? And if so, what snacks are you serving there?