It's been a long time since I've read a book that has touched me as deeply as Lean In, written by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. I not only felt validated but inspired to continue to pass on my beliefs and learnings to my kids, especially my daughter.
Sheryl encourages women to lean in rather than sit on the sidelines, to seek challenges and take risks. She uses personal anecdotes and hard data to show that we are still living in a man's world where their rules and our "internal" barriers conspire to prevent women from living their fullest potential.
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Today women in this country represent more than 50 percent of college graduates and the workforce, yet men hold the vast majority of leadership positions and the number of women in these positions keeps declining!
I feel so fortunate to have parents who always encouraged my sisters and me to aspire to the goals that at the time that I was growing up, only men aspired to. I wanted to be President of Chile! ! I've met so many Latinas who were discouraged from going to college because their families believe that it would be a "waste" to invest their hard-earned money on a woman who is to stay at home to care for the kids.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I believe that all women should work and be career minded, but I do believe they should get to make that choice on their own!
I also give a lot of credit to my success as a working woman to the gringo whom I married! He has been an amazing partner throughout my career. Whenever I doubted my decision to continue a very demanding career track, he not only provided much needed emotional support but also took on caregiving and household responsibilities that few men would do.
When my son was diagnosed deaf, I had friends who judged me for being too ambitious and for prioritizing my job so highly. It was my mom, my husband, and my boss who urged me to continue to work rather than quit. I probably would have resented my son for having to give up what I had worked so hard to achieve (I had just been awarded a big promotion).
The only way that we're going to change the barriers that women face as they consider entering the workforce and pursuing a career in management is to have more women in leadership roles so that they can rewrite the rules on what it takes to lead as well as the definition of success.
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