{"id":1507361,"date":"2022-06-08T08:19:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1507361"},"modified":"2022-06-08T08:19:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:19:49","slug":"the-lean-in-era-is-over-and-thats-good-for-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-lean-in-era-is-over-and-thats-good-for-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Lean In\u2019 Era Is Over, And That\u2019s Good For Everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-lean-in-era-is-over-and-thats-good-for-everyone%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1507361&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sheryl Sandberg\u00a0announced last week that she is leaving her position as chief operating officer of Facebook\u2019s parent company, Meta \u2014 the job that made her a billionaire and one of the highest-profile women in Silicon Valley. There is much to be said about her next <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBedfordDC\/status\/1532346807698833409\">venture<\/a> as well as some unflattering\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/06\/03\/meta-investigated-sheryl-sandberg-for-using-corporate-resources-to-plan-wedding-report\/\">reports<\/a>\u00a0about the real reason for her departure, but it\u2019s worth reflecting on how the end of her c-suite reign also marks a whimpering end to the \u201cGirlboss\u201d era. <\/p>\n<p>Sandberg is of course known for her 2013 best-seller \u201cLean In,\u201d in which she encourages women to defy sex roles and embrace ambition in the workplace by overcoming \u201cbarriers that exist within ourselves.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in,\u201d she writes. <\/p>\n<p>While some feminists embraced \u201cleaning in\u201d as a rallying cry, others felt her advice failed to address issues of inequality \u2014 like how not all women can afford full-time childcare so they can work late hours like Sandberg, nor do many women want to. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSociety has moved on. We pay a lot more attention now to the structural disadvantages women have \u2014 everything from sexual harassment to child care to no national paid maternity leave,\u201d feminist columnist Katha Pollitt told The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/explore\/careers\/what-sheryl-sandbergs-lean-in-has-meant-to-women\/\">New York Times. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a Sheryl Sandberg superfan. Then her \u2018Lean In\u2019 advice failed me,\u201d another working mom wrote at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/first-person\/2018\/12\/6\/18128838\/michelle-obama-lean-in-sheryl-sandberg\">Vox<\/a> in 2018. Even the \u201cGirlboss\u201d icon herself, Michelle Obama, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/culture\/2018\/12\/3\/18123796\/michelle-obama-criticizes-lean-in-becoming-tour\">a crowd on her sold-out book tour<\/a> that, \u201cit\u2019s not always enough to lean in, because that sh-t doesn\u2019t work all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some women felt empowered by \u201ctaking a seat at the table\u201d or walking into their boss\u2019s office and demanding a raise. Still, others discovered that speaking up louder in meetings and working longer and harder hours did, in fact, not\u00a0catapult them to the top of male-dominated fields or, more importantly, make them any happier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that after being given all the advice and tools needed to climb the corporate ladder, many women are outright rejecting Sandberg\u2019s vision of the corporate \u201cGirlboss\u201d life. Upon realizing that even if they did have the means to \u201clean in,\u201d it wasn\u2019t actually what they wanted. <\/p>\n<p>Although women have been waking up to the false promises of third-wave feminism since Sandberg hit the bestsellers list, Covid lockdowns were the nail in the coffin of the \u201cGirlboss\u201d era. As I\u2019ve written about <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/15\/the-wage-gap-is-getting-worse-and-women-are-pretty-happy-about-it\/\">before<\/a>, nearly<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/behavioral-competencies\/global-and-cultural-effectiveness\/pages\/over-1-million-fewer-women-in-labor-force.aspx#:~:text=The%20McKinsey%20report%20found%20that,versus%201%20in%205%20men.\">\u00a02 million\u00a0<\/a>women have left the labor force entirely since February 2020 \u2014 a 33-year record low. <\/p>\n<p>Whether it was a welcome change or not (Looking at you, teachers\u2019 unions), lockdowns gave many women the freedom to work less and not feel ashamed about it. The normalization of remote work and flexible schedules made it easier for many moms to reject the false choice of work and family, but also the freedom to choose only family. <\/p>\n<p>Recently released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/vsrr\/vsrr020.pdf\">data<\/a> from the Centers for Diease Control that show a 2021 spike in birth rates may affirm this shift in women\u2019s lifestyle choices. Lyman Stone, at the <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/is-remote-work-behind-the-spike-in-us-birth-rates\">Institute for Family Studies<\/a>, surveyed 3,000 American women ages 18-44 to determine if this spike may have something to do with expanded access to remote work. Stone found that women with remote work capability or women who do not work at all show higher rates of family satisfaction than women who are employed but have no remote work option.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"448\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/figure4-24-w640.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/figure4-24-w640.png 640w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/figure4-24-w640-300x210-1.png 300w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Institute for Family Studies\/Lyman Stone<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis happiness might be caused by an expectation of soon having a wedding or a new baby, or the improved family circumstances could possibly lead to more willingness to take the next step in relationships,\u201d Stone concedes. \u201cBut taken together, these results do point to one possible explanation for the rapid rebound in births: expanded remote work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This new frontier of remote work could not look more different from the vision Sandberg lays out in her book: a single woman taking a seat at a table full of male coworkers and bosses, secretly pumping breast milk with the door closed while on conference calls, and hiring extra help around the house to make up for late hours at the office. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, Sandberg is a working mom and her book was careful to not admonish working moms or stay-at-home moms, but much of her advice now seems laughable post-Covid. \u201cRaising hands\u201d and \u201ctaking a seat at the table\u201d doesn\u2019t quite translate on Zoom calls. One whole chapter of the book titled, \u201cDon\u2019t Leave Before You Leave,\u201d is spent instructing women to not \u201clean back\u201d or step back at work when anticipating having children. Now, many young women are choosing jobs based on their conduciveness to family even before they accept the position. <\/p>\n<p>Sandberg billed herself as charting a way for women to fight for\u00a0big corporate leadership roles they deserved, but instead, she aided in creating the feminist veil by which big corporate often justifies exploiting their labor by trying to prevent family formation (ergo, happiness). When big corporate competes with families for a woman\u2019s attention, instead of cooperating with\u00a0families to help them provide for themselves, everyone loses, but especially women.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Madeline Osburn is managing editor at The Federalist. Contact her at madeline@thefederalist.com or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/madelineorr\">follow her on Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sheryl Sandberg\u00a0announced last week that she is leaving her position as chief operating officer of Facebook\u2019s parent company, Meta \u2014 the job that made her a billionaire and one of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":590,"featured_media":1894321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1507361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1507361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1507361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1507361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1507361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}