Overall, I really liked Lean In. I thought that she provided a lot of really great advice about leadership in the workplace and particularly about how women can do a better job as leaders. I admire her greatly and wish that she would have published this book 10 or 15 years ago as I was in school and/or the early stages of my career. I loved that she is a life long learner and challenged herself to continually reassess herself and her comfort zones. She is the type of leader that I've dreamed of working for and honestly as a really young professional, I would have considered moving to Silicon Valley to try to get a job working for her.
I found something in every chapter that I could learn from her in some way and I hope that I'll be able to use some of the things that she suggested as I continue to grow my business and move my career forward. I was particularly intrigued by her advice that we have a career jungle gym and not a ladder. Sadly, this was not advice that I had heard previously and her analogy makes a lot more sense to me. I remember realizing that it was not going to be realistic for me to follow the vertical path that was normalized in my field (and followed by many men in particular). I didn't have the ability to uproot a partner with a much better paying job to move to some obscure college town so I could take a job that had a better title and paid very little. I have literally been trudging through a muddy, linear career path since then and really felt lost. Her jungle gym analogy helped me feel better about my path, although, I still am caught in the mud to an extent. I will share this analogy with my friends when they ask for career advice as I think it better fits the realities of a woman's (and many men's) career path.
Now for the criticism. Throughout her book, I kept thinking, too bad I don't have an Ivy League education that is accompanied by connections to many important places and people. As much as I am proud of my academic pedigree, I am not part of as expansive of a network. I feel that the job market is increasingly driven by who you know and it is a much harder path when you don't have a preformed network like she had/has access to use. I have had to do more proving along the way and also have had to build my network as I go- both are realities of the career jungle gym for many women and I think this is a fair criticism of her and her book. She graduated with the networking silver spoon in her mouth and has benefited greatly from it. I wonder how her path would have been different and if she would have been as successful had she graduated from a school that was not accompanied by the name recognition and network that accompanies every graduate from Harvard- smart or not.
My other criticism is in line with many others- she still doesn't quite get the experience of the average working mom. As much as I wanted to continue working outside of the home, I knew that it was not sustainable or healthy for me or my family. I may have felt differently had I been in a job and with an employer where some kind of career progression was possible and perhaps I would have hung on longer if I thought that there was any opportunity for both. Either way, I still didn't feel that she get's it and she admits that she had many resources to help with her family. Again, I wonder how her perception of being a working mother would be different had she had her children earlier in her career- say before she got her MBA. There are luxuries that come with the level of position that she held both at Google and currently has at Facebook. Does she work a lot and shoulder a lot of pressure, yes, but her positions provided her with the financial resources to be able to pay for the help that she needs. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most working mothers and they then become caught up on the very delicate tight rope of balancing career and family. I feel lucky that I had some options within my field and although it is a long road to build a client base and have a steady stream of work, I am optimistic that I can move myself on my jungle gym. I don't think that she adequately addresses that fact that working moms have to choose and can't participate in the way that many employers do business- travel, coming in early or working late, evening and weekend social commitments, I could go on and on. A working mom has to be smart with her time and maximize her time in the office because once she leaves for the day, she can't always find time to do more work, nor should she be expected to. Unfortunately, being smart with her time often means that she isn't able to take her lunch break to have lunch with someone more senior. I also felt in my case that I was so exhausted- physically and mentally- that thinking about and taking steps towards my next job was difficult. On a good day, I was able to accomplish everything that needed to be done to be ready to do it all again the next day. I guess my advice for her is to step out of Facebook and their very unique culture and talk to some working moms in other organizations. I think that she'll be surprised to hear what it is like for us 'average' moms and how we literally are on the brink most days.
Finally, I also think that her book doesn't address the challenges faced by women of color. I think that although many of the things she was saying are good pieces of advice for all women, she doesn't have the lived experience of being a woman of color and how many of the negative stereotypes for women are even more negative and damaging for women of color. Yes, her advice should be transferable to women of all races, but it isn't and she missed that important distinction.
Overall, I loved the book and recommend it to young career women. It is a very well written book about women as leaders and how to navigate the male driven business environment. I plan to read a book by one of her critics soon (Maxed Out: American Moms On the Brink) and plan to write a review of that book once I have a chance to read it. I am not sure that there will be room for a comparison as I truly think that Lean In is a leadership guide for women and not a book about working moms, but I definitely will make note of anything that can be compared and contrasted.
