Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.
Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TEDTalk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which became a phenomenon and has been viewed more than two million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto.
In Lean In, Sandberg digs deeper into these issues, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through the layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. She recounts her own decisions, mistakes, and daily struggles to make the right choices for herself, her career, and her family. She provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.” She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women in the workplace and at home.
Written with both humor and wisdom, Sandberg’s book is an inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth. Lean In is destined to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can.
“Lean In is an inauguration more than a last word, and an occasion for celebration . . . Many, many women, young and old, elite and otherwise, will find it prescriptive, refreshing, and perhaps even revolutionary.” —Anna Holmes, The New Yorker
“A landmark manifesto. . . . Fifty years after The Feminine Mystique . . . Sandberg addresses 21st-century issues that never entered Betty Friedan’s wildest dreams . . . Lean In will be an influential book. It will open the eyes of women who grew up thinking that feminism was ancient history, who recoil at the word but walk heedlessly through the doors it opened. And it will encourage those women to persevere in their professional lives.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“What Sandberg offers is a view that shows 20-somethings that choices and tradeoffs surely exist, but that the ‘old normal’ of blunting ambition so that you can fit in one category or another does not have to be the way it is. And that each of us has a say in what comes next. And that includes men.” —Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, The Atlantic
“A muscular manifesto on the gender inequities of the professional world. . . . Sandberg is making a disruptive, crucial observation that puts her very much in line with Friedan: All is not just in the gendered world, and we should be talking urgently about how to make it better.” —Rebecca Traister, Los Angeles Times
“Important . . . This is a great moment for all of us—women and men—to acknowledge that the current male-dominated model of success isn’t working for women, and it’s not working for men, either . . . The world needs women to redefine success beyond money and power. We need a third metric, based on our well-being, our health, our ability to unplug and recharge and renew ourselves, and to find joy in both our job and the rest of our life.” —Arianna Huffington, Forbes
“A lucidly written, well-argued, and unabashedly feminist take on women and work, replete with examples from the author’s life.” —Julia Klein, USA Today
“Having read Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, I can testify that it addresses internalized oppression, opposes the external barriers that create it, and urges women to support each other to fight both. It argues not only for women’s equality in the workplace, but men’s equality in home-care and child-rearing. Even its critics are making a deep if inadvertent point: Only in women is success viewed as a barrier to giving advice.” —Gloria Steinem
“Lean In has plenty for feminists and all women to applaud—and learn from . . . I’m glad Sandberg is speaking out. I’m glad she’s using her platform to help give women the tools to succeed, and to encourage all of us to go out and get what we want. The real strength of Lean In is in its Rosie the Riveter 2.0 message: ‘You can do it! Here’s how.’ . . . A crucial call to action.” —Jill Filipovic, The Guardian
“After reading Lean In and listening to Sheryl, I realize that, while I believe I am relatively enlightened, I have not consistently walked the talk . . . I believe we—together—need to drive a fundamental culture change and it is up to us as leaders to make this change happen. What we have been doing hasn’t worked, and it is time to adjust . . . We have an opportunity to make a tremendous difference, and in so doing benefit our people, out culture, our company, and, just maybe, the world.” —John Chambers, CEO, Cisco
“Sandberg’s voice is modest, humorous, warm, and enthusiastic . . . You don’t have to be climbing the corporate ladder—or, as Sandberg would call it, the jungle gym—to find her message useful. Don’t marry a man who isn’t egalitarian? Good plan! Be more confident? Excellent advice . . . I’m buying a copy of Lean In for my daughter and one for my stepdaughter, too.” —Katha Pollitt, The Nation
“A rallying cry for both genders to continue the hard work of previous generations toward a more equitable division of voice, power, and leadership. . . . Told with candor and filled with a mix of anecdote and annotated fact, Lean In inspires women to find their passion, pursue it with gusto, and ‘lean in’ to leadership roles in the workplace and the world.” —Linda Stankard, BookPage
“I plan to buy Lean In for our three grown daughters and daughter-in-law. . . . In our family, and in families across the country, may the conversations begin.” —Connie Schultz, Washington Post
“Compelling . . . Sandberg writes with sophistication and thoughtful reflection. . . . A book that has a powerful message but that is also full of personal vulnerability and first-hand anecdotes, packed with statistics and footnoted studies that back her points.” —Susan Adams, Forbes
“When was the last time anybody talked this much about a women’s place in the world, period? Sandberg’s Lean In is opening up the dialogue—and, in true Silicon Valley fashion, she’s made it scalable . . . It’s put words to what we’d long felt but couldn’t quite articulate; the insecurities, the self-doubt, the fear that causes us to keep our hands down. Because, whether we’d recognized it or not, each of us . . . had been grappling with precisely what Sandberg aims to conquer . . . She’s also managed to bridge a gap that has mystified many an activist before her: reaching women who both self-identify as feminists, and those who don’t.” —Jessica Bennett, NYMag.com
“Sheryl provides practical suggestions for managing and overcoming the challenges that arise on the ‘jungle gym’ of career advancement. I nodded my head in agreement and laughed out loud as I read these pages. Lean In is a superb, witty, candid, and meaningful read for women (and men) of all generations.” —Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state
“No one who reads this book will ever doubt that Sandberg herself has the will to lead, not to mention the requisite commitment, intelligence, and ferocious work ethic. . . . Sandberg is not just tough, however. She also comes across as compassionate, funny, honest, and likable. . . . Most important, she is willing to draw the curtain aside on her own insecurities…Lean In is full of gems, slogans that ambitious women would do well to pin up on their wall. . . . I nodded in recognition at so much of what Sandberg recounts, page after page.” —Anne-Marie Slaughter, The New York Times Book Review (cover review)
“Unapologetic. . . . Sandberg is using her power and influence to try and improve the world. . . . Sandberg’s most powerful rhetorical device in the book is a saturation of stats that are sometimes shocking and sometimes reverberating—but always the kind that make you reevaluate what’s going on around us.” —Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider
“What Sandberg offers is a view that shows 20-somethings that choices and tradeoffs surely exist, but that the ‘old normal’ of blunting ambition so that you can fit in one category or another does not have to be the way it is. And that each of us has a say in what comes next. And that includes men.” —Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, The Atlantic
“I’m guessing that the average boardroom doesn’t have much better gender equality than a team of cave hunters attacking a woolly mammoth 30,000 years ago. So what gives? A provocative answer comes from Sheryl Sandberg, who has written a smart book that attributes the gender gap, in part, to chauvinism and corporate obstacles—but also, in part, to women who don’t aggressively pursue opportunities. . . . There is something real and important in what she says.” —Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
“Inspirational. . . . Sandberg offers concrete suggestions on how to make our work and home life more satisfying and successful. . . . We can work smartly towards attaining more, in ways that make it better for us all.” —Kare Anderson, Forbes
“Giving women the tools and skills they need to take themselves and society—worldwide—to the next level.” —Leslie L. Kossoff, Technorati.com
“Sheryl Sandberg has done a tremendous service with this work. It offers a vital and sharp message, for women and men. We need great leaders in key seats spread throughout all sectors of society, and we simply cannot afford to lose 50 percent of the smartest, most capable people from competing for those seats. Provocative, practical, and inspired!” —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great
“To tackle society’s most pressing problems we need to unleash the leadership of both women and men. Lean In shows us the path and is an absolutely invaluable resource for the next generation of leaders and those who support them.” —Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO, Teach for America
“For the past five years, I’ve sat at a desk next to Sheryl and I’ve learned something from her almost every day. She has a remarkable intelligence that can cut through complex processes and find solutions to the hardest problems. Lean In combines Sheryl’s ability to synthesize information with her understanding of how to get the best out of people. The book is smart and honest and funny. Her words will help all readers—especially men—to become better and more effective leaders.” —Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, Facebook
“Sheryl is a unique business leader because of her versatility and breadth. She has the two traits that are common in every successful leader I have known: curiosity and determination. Sheryl brings all of her insight to Lean In, an important new book that companies can use to get the most out of their talent. With her ideas and actions, Sheryl will help to define leadership in the years to come.” —Jeff Immelt, CEO, General Electric
“The key to opening some of life’s most difficult doors is already in our hands. Sheryl’s book reminds us that we can reach within ourselves to achieve greatness.” —Alicia Keys
“If you loved Sheryl Sandberg’s incredible TEDT alk on why we have too few women leaders, or simply believe as I do that we need equality in the boardroom, then this book is for you. As Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg has firsthand experience of why having more women in leadership roles is good for business as well as society. Lean In is essential reading for anyone interested in righting the injustice of this inequality.” —Sir Richard Branson, chairman, the Virgin Group
“Lean In poses a set of ambitious challenges to women: to create the lives we want, to be leaders in our work, to be partners in our homes, and to be champions of other women. Sheryl provides pragmatic advice on how women in the twenty-first century can meet these challenges. I hope women—and men—of my generation will read this book to help us build the lives we want to lead and the world we want to live in.” —Chelsea Clinton
