Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

by Sheryl Sandberg

When girls are reminded of their gender before a math or science test, even by something as simple as checking off an M or F box at the top of the test, they perform worse.27 Stereotype threat discourages girls and women from entering technical fields and is one of the key reasons that so few study computer science.28

We need to stop telling them, “Get a mentor and you will excel.” Instead, we need to tell them, “Excel and you will get a mentor.”

No wonder when asked at a conference what men could do to help advance women’s leadership, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter answered, “The laundry.”

Gloria reiterated that progress for women in the home has trailed progress in the workplace, explaining, “Now we know that women can do what men can do, but we don’t know that men can do what women can do.”34 I believe they can and we should give them more chances to prove it.

About 65 percent of married-couple families with children in the United States have two parents in the workforce, with almost all relying on both incomes to support their household.

About 30 percent of families with children are led by a single parent, with 84 percent of those led by a woman.3

Perfection is the enemy. Gloria Steinem said it best: “You can’t do it all. No one can have two full-time jobs, have perfect children and cook three meals and be multi-orgasmic ’til dawn … Superwoman is the adversary of the women’s movement.”5

Sleeping four or five hours a night induces mental impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level above the legal driving limit.20 Sleep deprivation makes people anxious, irritable, and confused.

“Before we move on, I’d like to hear what [senior woman] had to say.”