More than 200 people swarmed the Coolidge Corner Theatre Thursday night to see one of Time’s 100 most influential people of 2012 and the often-lauded “new face of feminism,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, author of the New York Times bestseller Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.
In an onstage interview with Robin Young, host of WBUR’s Here & Now, Sandberg argued that gender barriers still exist in the modern American workplace and discussed the national debate surrounding Lean In, which advocates the idea that women should be more ambitious and demanding of raises and other benefits that their male counterparts tend to receive.
“It’s 2013. Women get paid 77 cents to the dollar in this country. It’s time to ask for the same money,” Sandberg said. “People think [this is] an industry-specific problem. ‘Oh, it’s the tech industry. Oh, it’s Wall Street.’ This is not industry-specific.”
Sandberg, a Harvard Business School graduate, said that gender stereotypes and sexism should be combated in order to help women succeed professionally. She also suggested women need to be proactive about their own careers, as Lean In implies.
“Women are held back by lots of things — by discrimination, by sexism, by terrible public policy,” she said. “I believe we should reform all of that. But I also believe that the conversation can’t be only about that. In a lot of ways, the conversation about women is only about that.”
Despite her support for gender equality in the workplace, Sandberg has been criticized by many who believe that she “places too much of the onus on women who are already struggling to fulfill impossible demands and too little on government and employers to provide better child care, more flexible jobs and other concrete gains,” according to a Feb. 21 New York Times article.
“There are people who think that in saying that women need to lean in more and claim their place at the table that you are blaming them,” Young prompted Sandberg. “I actually heard [someone say] on a talk show that it’s the equivalent of blaming a rape victim. That it’s women’s fault that they haven’t achieved in the world.”
“Wow,” Sandberg said, visibly shocked. “Look, I knew going into this … you touch on this subject and you are touching on something that is deeply personal.”
Despite her controversial message, Sandberg has garnered a league of female fans and supporters with the help of her nonprofit organization and global online community, Lean In.
“I read [Lean In] and … when she talks about what the women are like, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s me!’” said Boston University Student Activities Office associate director Abby Myette, who was first in line for Sandberg’s Thursday talk. “Anybody who writes something about how we work is never going to encompass everyone. Everybody has their own work styles. Even the other women in my office don’t necessarily fit the type of person she’s talking about.”
Rodline Louijeune, a compliance analyst at the University of Massachusetts Building Authority and Bryn Mawr College graduate, said Sandberg was a “huge figure” to her and her classmates.
“I think [her book is] really inspirational for women coming up in this day and age,” she said. “It definitely is some encouragement to push harder. And we can do it.” 