A Book a Week – Lean In

I will admit that I resisted reading Lean In for a long time.

I had a lot of my own ideas about the topic. I’d read a lot of articles about Sheryl and I wasn’t sure how much the book could add to what I had already listened to in her TED talk.

But I finally did read it and I am so glad I did.

I really really liked this book. I have no inspiration to be a CEO, CFO, CTO or C-anything. I really like working but I am not sure how much I like the corporate world and a lot of the politics that is invariably a part of that world. While it’s still a struggle, my current balance seems the closest thing to ideal I have at this moment. And I’ve never really thought of myself as a feminist in any way.

I’ve been good at “male-dominated” subjects my whole life. As early as third grade, I went head to head with a boy in my class for which one of us could do math faster. (I won by the way.) I was never told that, as a woman, I wasn’t supposed to be good at math. It truly never occurred to me to question my love of math, computers or anything else. Even though my mom didn’t encourage me to go to college specifically, she and my dad supported me a 1000% and helped me make all my dreams true. Not once along the way did I hear that I was a girl and that I shouldn’t aim to go to the US or study computers or anything along those lines. I personally never felt like being a woman stood in the way of my choices, career and life.

And yet.

Reading this book, I could easily see that I stood in my own way many, many times.

This is not to say that I would have done much differently but I definitely agree with a lot of what’s outlined in this book and it gave me a lot of food for thought. I am still processing much of it.

It is also well-written and easy to read. I recommend it.