I don’t know if it was the most stupid or the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done.
If you don’t know Sheryl Sandberg you’ve missed out. Her book, Lean In, is “… not a feminist manifesto — okay, it is sort of a feminist manifesto, but one that I hope inspires men as much as it inspires women.” She brings together a whole range of interesting facts, anecdotes and personal stories from being a woman among the ‘elite’ of Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs.
She point to structural patriarchal issues in society – but she also eloquently describes the internalized shit that keeps us girls back. Like, did you know that upon graduation from Carnegie Mellon, 57% of the guys negotiated the salary of their first job, but only 7% of the girls did?
Those are the kind of facts that WILL mess with your head. Especially when you didn’t negotiate your salary when you started your job, and suddenly find yourself in a position where you realize you should have – because all your male counterparts did.
Throughout the book, she encourages girls to ‘sit at the table’ and to ‘lean in’.
I did lean in. I asked.
And I got what I wanted, and then some.