Baltimore Fishbowl columnist and University of Baltimore professor Marion Winik reviewed for Newsday the controversial new book by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Read an excerpt, below:
LEAN IN: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg. Alfred A. Knopf, 228 pp., $24.95.
Rarely has the publication of a book been met with such a volley of snark and countersnark as “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” a business advice book by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. Noticeably arm’s-length coverage by Jodi Kantorin The New York Times kicked off weeks of hoopla and vitriol in the blogosphere. Critics, many of whom had not read the book, which was published Tuesday, accused Sandberg of overreaching; of being elitist, anti-motherhood and anti-feminist; of not adequately representing poor, minority and non-heterosexual women; and, finally, of wearing Louboutin and Prada. Others rushed quickly to decry what seemed like knee-jerk feminist posturing or plain old hating the rich.
I doubt Sandberg was surprised. Despite her deep desires to be likable and useful to society, both crystallized in this book, she has been a target at every step of her career. “About to ruin Facebookforever” was just one of the warm welcomes she received as she climbed what she prefers to describe as the corporate jungle gym rather than ladder (more entry points, lots of challenges and obstacles, no single pinnacle, you “aren’t stuck staring at the butt of the person above”).
Read the rest of the review at newsday.com
