I managed to resist reading “Lean In” 通过 谢莉尔·桑德伯格 for a while. Based on the 媒体报道 and online conversation, I understood it to be a self-help book for 女性 at a crossroads in their careers: Should I step back and focus more on my family or should I make some personal sacrifices and reach for the top? 我已经有了这个问题的答案，所以我决定把我宝贵的阅读时间集中在小说逃生上。

但在我的朋友兼同事宣布她打算读这本书之后，我决定，嗯，向前一步。 The subject matter is super relevant to me — 工作与生活的平衡 — and I knew I’d have at least one like-minded person with whom I could debate its merits.

People often assume “Lean In” is all about challenging 女性 to go for more power and more money, even if it comes at a cost to their families. 以及质疑他们是否想要更少。 我很惊讶地发现，有一篇经过充分研究的综述，论述了女性掌权者的状况，以及一种趋势的宏观影响。这种趋势表明，在2013年，我们追求领导职位的倾向，比人们预期的要低。 I didn’t feel pressured to be 谢莉尔·桑德伯格. Instead I started to think beyond my own choices and how our collective apathy today might impact the future for our daughters.

Sandberg also reveals several dynamics that hold 女性 back, providing a mirror I very much needed to look into. For example, 女性 are hesitant to tout their accomplishments or overstate their capabilities. To do so makes us less likeable in the eyes of our colleagues and clients. 男人被期望这样做，甚至因此而受到钦佩。 我立刻想到了几个男性同行。

Sandberg brings enough of her personal story into the book to humanize herself, although I couldn’t always identify with what she shared. She talks about how even she isn’t always comfortable with her choices, telling a story about dropping her daughter off at preschool and informing her she had to go catch a plane for a business meeting. She said her daughter did “that holding onto the leg thing,” which made it very hard for her to leave. Calling it a “thing” kind of turned my stomach. I thought about how her daughter (who will surely read her book and watch her TED演讲) would feel about her mother characterizing those very real feelings of separation anxiety as a “thing.”

我可能不是财富公司的c级高管，但我发现我的工作给了我影响女性未来的机会。 I won’t change my career path as a result of reading “Lean In,” but I will think differently about some of my behaviors and how they might enable a world where 女性 are not encouraged to sit at the table when important decisions are made.