Facebook chief Sheryl Sandberg’s 'Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead' ignores the sorry fate of those who miss out on motherhood.
The difficulty with a successful woman setting out to write a book about work
and ambition is that half her target audience won’t know what she’s talking
about because they’re too busy trying to make ends meet. The other half will
hate her because she’s successful.
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook and an Alpha female,
is running this gauntlet right now, thanks to her controversial new book,
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.
I once spoke at a glitzy event in New York on much the same theme. It was
sponsored by a clothing company, which planned to sell women’s officewear in
the interval. While the Mrs Alphas were sipping their soya lattes and
debating whether they really could have it all, I popped backstage and got
talking to some of the sales staff.
Mainly Hispanic and white women from poorer boroughs, they told me they were
lucky if the clothing company let them have three weeks off after they gave
birth. They didn’t want to leave their newborns, but they had bills to pay.
The new infant would either be left with a family member or placed in
production-line daycare with as many as 100 other babies. In the
industrialised world, the United States is the only nation without a paid
parental leave policy. Instead, mothers are eligible for something called,
unbelievably, “sickness and disability”.
I felt distinctly queasy as I returned to the podium to banter about the
challenges of balancing a career and motherhood. Did the privileged women in
that hall ever spare a thought for the weary mum of three handing them a
fancy linen jacket to try on?
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