If you have paid any attention to the news over the past few months, you probably heard about Sheryl Sandberg's groundbreaking book, "Lean In".
It's basically a career book for women, by women, all about women. At first, when I heard about it, the media was making it sound negative. The women on The View didn't seem too fond of the book and it got a negative connotation.
Then, I started seeing other career people talk about it; the Levo League, Intern Queen, and many others were responding positively to this change the world book.
For the Intern Queen Book Club, we've been reading "Lean In" over the past month or two and I really enjoyed it. My negative thoughts about it floated right out of my head. I don't even remember what exactly was said.
Here's some back story: Sheryl Sandberg is the current COO of Facebook and previously held leadership positions at Google. She made a name for herself by speaking out for women in the work place and giving some inspirational TedTalks.
Sandberg's whole theory about "Leaning In" is that women need to take more power of their careers. They need to sit at the table with the men and literally lean in; to listen, to speak up, to take what is theirs.
Women, naturally, tend to be more meek in the work place, letting men take the reigns and take over. More men raise their hands in meetings, they speak up more, they negotiate more--men, men, men.
Sheryl talks about the discriminations that women are still facing in the work force. She tackled issues that I thought were non existent. It's 2013, how could there still be discrimination against women in offices and businesses around the country?
Well there is; whether it's because women are emotional, want to start a family, or a plethra of other reasons, women are not equals to their male counterparts in places of business.
Sandberg wants to put an end to that. She has completely started a movement for women, with her book and a website dedicated to the "Lean In" motion.
This is our time, ladies. It's time to do what we need to do to establish ourselves as powerhouses in the work place. Over the past few years, we've been hearing about how women entrepreneurs, leaders, and executives are taking over but looking at the statistics, it's just not enough.
We need to ask more questions, answer more questions, stop being fearful, and pull up a chair to the men's table.
I can't encompass everything that Sheryl points out; she makes great analogies, incredible points of interest and writes some inspirational quotes that will give you the chills and move you to tears.
I'm not trying to sound like a feminist (there would be nothing wrong with that) but we are women, we are strong, and we deserve to be equal to men in the work place--just as men deserve to be equal to us.
Go get Sheryl's book today! There are some chapters (like on starting a family) that you may not need right now but the entire book, as a whole, has a wonderful, positive message that will affect you and inspire you for the rest of your life.
Stand up, sit at the table, and lean in.
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