Working Women Mothers - Leaning In?

Have you heard of Sheryl Sandberg? She is the COO of Facebook. She is 43 years old and the mother of 2 young children. She is beautiful and smart and successful. She authored the best seller Lean In, that we read and talked about for my "Women And Technology" group at work today.

I bought this book and read it in one weekend. I enjoyed every page of this book because I find her attitude and mindset so fascinating - and also because as a working-outside-the-home-mom in corporate America, every single page of this book somehow resonated with me. I literally related to every personal story she shared in her book regarding day care, the guilty feelings, the effort to "succeed" in a male dominated work force, her kids getting head lice, the breast pumping, the 'shame' about leaving work at 5:30 and not wanting your peers to know because they are working around the clock. This book is non-judgementally written and talks about giving our daughters choices and confidence to succeed and encourages women to stay in the workforce. So interesting! (I will also mention that the book is not just for working moms it is about working women in general and gender issues and how women and men are perceived differently in the corporate world - we actually are liked less the more we succeed, so we have to compensate by utilizing a different set of skills in order to be perceived as likable - a problem that men don't have to deal with. It talks about how we as women hold ourselves back by our lack of confidence and how both men and women are conditioned to do so.)

Personally, (and obviously this is my private struggle that I'm not going to talk about at work - but I'm writing about it here on my blog...) I'm facing the question on whether I should be Leaning In to my career and embracing it, as I have sacrificed and worked hard to get where I am, and it is good for my daughters to have the choice to do so and the role model as well, if that's what they want or need to do... But the entire time I'm reading this book, for me it had me shaking my head "No" and affirming that I want to Lean Out of my career and Lean More Into Motherhood. I do feel that the best of both worlds would be to have a part time job. I guess I'm just conflicted. But however you feel on the matter, as a working woman and mother, this is an enjoyable and thought provoking book to read - whether you agree with Sheryl's choices or not.

Here is a video of Sheryl speaking out at a TED talk and gives you a glimpse of the style and content of her book. Take a look if you are interested in this topic: