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Success is making the best
choices we can and accepting them
- - Sheryl Sandberg
A new trend common these days is
bracketing behaviour as feminist and non-feminist. One cannot speak of gender
equality without falling into either of these classifications. And when a book
comes out that directly attacks the sensitive area of “women empowerment” it is
bound to be branded sexist/feminist and put into a shelf screaming out the same.
After Sheryl Sandberg, the current COO of Facebook gave out a stately TED talk that has
been viewed more than 2 million times, she set out to write a book on the same
lines.
In a world that has less than 4%
of women in the leadership positions of fortune 500 companies, Sheryl posits
that we need more women at the top to ensure the empowerment of women and for
this purpose she has chalked out various guidelines and suggestions for both
men and women. I believe it cannot be called a manifesto per se, but can serve
as a wonderful insight into the thought process of a successful woman.
Sheryl has been openly bashed for
being brave and calling out for measures to bridge the gender inequality. Whenever
a successful (or in most cases slightly successful) man comes up with a
self-help book he is much lauded for his willingness to help the world. When a successful
woman genuinely tries to pull other women ahead with her, what is the need to
term her efforts as sexist and pretentious? Although the book may not be
considered a literary brilliance, I stand by Sheryl’s philosophy mentioned in
the book of getting more women at the top.
Now reflecting on the contents of
the book, I would say be your own judge and take only those suggestions that
are apt for your socio-economic conditions. Sheryl quotes brilliant anecdotes
and often comes across as a warm and vulnerable person. Reading the book is
thrilling for one it has life snippets of famous and powerful people and second
it convincingly drives home the fact that every other person in the world has familial and
careerist problems. Sheryl often supports her claims
through statistics, research studies and personal experience.
Sheryl tells the readers how she
and many other top notch working women handle family and work. I loved it when
she made a point how work-life balance is itself a funny concept and how one
cannot separate work from life. If you treat your work as a separate entity
apart from your life then probably you are not working in a job you love.
Sheryl assumes a type of problem-solving approach most leaders use - that of
sharing her experience during problematic times. This makes the book easily
readable and to attract the connectivity with the reader.
One thing that could be better in
the book is the sloppy transition to universal sentiments. Sheryl usually talks
about a certain approach throughout a chapter and then suddenly at the end of
the chapter she declares that she believes in the age-old wisdom and the
alternate approach is also equally right. This incoherent transition has
rendered the ending of many chapters unimpressive.
I recommend this book to those
who have the habit of catching up with the latest sensations of the literary
world and to those who love the typical Harvard alums way of writing a
persuasive book (FYI: Sheryl is a Harvard alumna). This book having less than
200 pages is a breezy read and has the contribution and time of many talented
persons as is evident from the acknowledgement section. Career loving parents
(read working moms in popular lingo)
should definitely try this out.
