Book of the Week: Lean In

25 Jan 2015

This week I read Lean In. There need to be more women leaders, because women are awesome and the man is keeping them from being awesome.

Bill Gates recalls once being invited to speak in Saudi Arabia and finding himself facing a segregated audience. Four-fifths of the listeners were men, on the left. The remaining one-fifth were women, all covered in black cloaks and veils, on the right. A partition separated the two groups. Toward the end, in the question-and-answer session, a member of the audience noted that Saudi Arabia aimed to be one of the Top 10 countries in the world in technology by 2010 and asked if that was realistic. “Well, if you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country,” Gates said, “you’re not going to get too close to the Top 10.” The small group on the right erupted in wild cheering. -NYTimes, The Women’s Crusade

If we have more female leaders, the world will be a better place. The only way that is going to happen is if the current leaders keep in mind gender issues and make it conscientious effort. Women expect to work hard and be promoted because life is supposed to be a meritocracy, but that is like asking a guy to read your mind. Only the naïve and advantaged think life is a meritocracy. Women work hard, get paid less and are passed on while lesser men ascend. The only way things can improve is if women on the top speak up, like Sheryl. Writing this book probably wasn’t on her list of things to do, but she was compelled to do it. I never had a problem with women leaders since my first programming job had a female CEO and founder. A woman was the head of the my physics department. I worked for an awesome CTO in two startups. I never thought of them as women in those roles. I thought about the education they had and what they did to get there. I want to utilize 100% of the talents I have access to.