Lean In — For Graduates

Book Review

Initially overlooked by me on account of a friend dismissing it as a book because it was ‘feminist and shiz’, I could not be happier I was recommended this a few weeks ago by another. The book explores the insights that Sheryl has gained being a part of multiple work cultures and situations, putting into words the unsaid and unrecognized actions that both males and females exhibit and revealing our deep — rooted behavioral patterns. She doesn’t argue, but simply puts forward the facts and results of researches and societies. From the perspective of career building, the chapter ‘It’s a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder’ seems to be the most relevant lesson for people not just starting out in their career or in the middle of it.

One very clear message it sends out is how we are still far from the desired levels of gender equality and how more women at the top in all fields and active encouragement from the men in their lives for the same is one way to make equality a norm, to ensure that nobody has to pay the ‘gender penalty’, not men and not women, for making choices that may seem deviant from their traditionally expected actions.