From the Baffler No. 23, 2013]

Facebook Feminism, Like It or Not SUSAN FALUDI [from The Baffler No. 23, 2013] The congregation swooned as she bounded on stage, the prophet sealskin sleek in her black skinny ankle pants and black ballet flats, a lavalier microphone clipped to the V-neck of her black button-down sweater. ―All right!! Let‘s go!!‖ she exclaimed, throwing out her arms and pacing the platform before inspirational graphics of glossy young businesswomen in managerial action poses. ―Super excited to have all of you here!!‖ ―Whoo!!‖ the young women in the audience replied. The camera, which was livestreaming the event in the Menlo Park, California, auditorium to college campuses worldwide, panned the rows of well-heeled Stanford University econ majors and MBA candidates. Some clutched copies of the day‘s hymnal: the speaker‘s new book, which promised to dismantle ―internal obstacles‖ preventing them from ―acquiring power.‖ The atmosphere was TED-Talk-cum-tent-revival-cum- Mary-Kay-cosmetics-convention. The salvation these adherents sought on this April day in 2013 was admittance to the pearly gates of the corporate corner office. ―Stand up,‖ the prophet instructed, ―if you‘ve ever said out loud, to another human being—and you have to have said it out loud—‗I am going to be the number one person in my field. I will be the CEO of a major company. I will be governor. I will be the number one person in my field.‘‖ A small, although not inconsiderable, percentage of the young women rose to their feet. The speaker consoled those still seated; she, too, had once been one of them. When she was voted ―most likely to succeed‖ in high school, she confided, she had begged a yearbook editor to delete that information, ―because most likely to succeed doesn‘t get a date for the prom.‖ Those days were long gone, ever since she‘d had her conversion on the road to Davos: she‘d ―leaned in‖ to her ambitions and enhanced her ―likability‖—and they could do the same. What‘s more, if they took the ―lean in‖ pledge, they might free themselves from some of those other pesky problems that hold women back in the workplace. ―If you lean forward,‖ she said, ―you will get yourself into a position where the organization you‘re with values you a lot and is therefore willing to be more flexible. Or you‘ll get promoted and then you‘ll get paid more and you‘ll be able to afford better child care.‖ If you ―believe you have the skills to do anything‖ and ―have the ambition to lead,‖ then you will ―change the world‖ for women. ―We get closer to the goal of true equality with every single one of you who leans in.‖ The pitch delivered, Lean In founder and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg summoned her deacon to close the deal. Rachel Thomas hustled onstage, a Sandberg Mini-Me in matching black ensemble (distinguished only by the color of her ballet flats and baubled necklace, both of which were gold). She‘s Lean In‘s president. (Before Lean In hit the bookstores, it was already a fully staffed operation, an organization purporting to be ―a global community committed to encouraging and supporting women leaning in to their ambitions.‖) ―I really want to invite you to join our community!‖ Thomas told the assembled. ―You‘ll get daily inspiration and insights.‖ Joining ―the community‖ was just a click away. In fact, the community was already uploaded and ready to receive them; all they had to do was hit the ―Lean In Today‖ button on their computer screen . and, oh yeah, join Facebook. (There is no entry into Lean In‘s Emerald e- Kingdom except through the Facebook portal; Sandberg has kept her message of liberation confined within her own corporate brand.) Thomas enumerated the ―three things‖ that Lean In offered. (In the Lean In Community, there are invariably three things required to achieve your aims.) First, Thomas instructed, ―Come like us on Facebook‖ (and, for extra credit, post your own inspirational graphic on Lean In‘s Facebook ―photo gallery‖ and ―tag your friends, tell them why you‘re leaning in!‖). Second, watch Lean In‘s online ―education‖ videos, twenty-minute lectures from ―experts‖ (business school professors, management consultants, and a public speaking coach) with titles like ―Power and Influence‖ and ―Own the Room.‖ Third, create a ―Lean In Circle‖ with eight to ten similarly aspirational young women. The circles, Lean In literature stresses, are to promote ―peer mentorship‖ only—not to deliver aid and counsel from experienced female elders who might actually help them advance. Thomas characterized the circle as ―a book club with a purpose.‖ All they had to do was click on the ―Create a Circle‖ button on LeanIn.org and follow the ―three easy steps.‖ ―We provide everything that you need to do it,‖ Thomas assured. ―All the materials, all the how-to information, and a very cool technology platform called Mightybell.‖ Mightybell‘s CEO, it so happens, is Gina Bianchini, cofounder of Lean In. ―So it‘s really easy to do, and don‘t wait!‖ Thomas said. ―Go do it for yourself today!‖ Since its unveiling this spring, the Lean In campaign has been reeling in a steadily expanding group of tens of thousands of followers with its tripartite E-Z plan for getting to the top. But the real foundation of the movement is, of course, Sheryl Sandberg‘s bestselling book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, billed modestly by its author as ―sort of a feminist manifesto.‖ Sandberg‘s mantra has become the feminist rallying cry of the moment, praised by notable figures such as Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda, Marlo Thomas, andNation columnist Katha Pollitt. A Time magazine cover story hails Sandberg for ―embarking on the most ambitious mission to reboot feminism and reframe discussions of gender since the launch of Ms. magazine in 1971.‖ Pretty good for somebody who, ―as of two and a half years ago,‖ as Sandberg confessed on her book tour, ―had never said the word woman aloud. Because that‘s not how you get ahead in the world.‖ If you were waiting for someone to lean in for child care legislation, keep holding your breath. The lovefest continues on LeanIn.org‘s ―Meet the Community‖ page, where tribute is paid by Sandberg‘s high-powered network of celebrities, corporate executives, and media moguls (many media moguls), among them Oprah Winfrey, New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, Newsweek and Daily Beast editor in chief Tina Brown,Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Cosmopolitan editor in chief Joanna Coles, former Good Morning America coanchor Willow Bay, former first lady Laura Bush (and both of her daughters), former California first lady and TV host Maria Shriver, U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Elizabeth Warren, Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust, Dun & Bradstreet CEO Sara Mathew, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Coca-Cola marketing executive Wendy Clark, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, supermodel Tyra Banks, and actor (and Avon ―Global Ambassador‖) Reese Witherspoon. Beneath highly manicured glam shots, each ―member‖ or ―partner‖ reveals her personal ―Lean In moment.‖ The accounts inevitably have happy finales—the Lean In guidelines instruct contributors to ―share a positive ending.‖ Tina Brown‘s Lean In moment: getting her parents to move from England to ―the apartment across the corridor from us on East 57th Street in New York,‖ so her mother could take care of the children while Brown took the helm at The New Yorker. If you were waiting for someone to lean in for child care legislation, keep holding your breath. So far, there‘s no discernible groundswell. When asked why she isn‘t pushing for structural social and economic change, Sandberg says she‘s all in favor of ―public policy reform,‖ though she‘s vague about how exactly that would work, beyond generic tsk-tsking about the pay gap and lack of maternity leave. She says she supports reforming the workplace—but the particulars of comparable worth or subsidized child care are hardly prominent elements of her book or her many media appearances. Sandberg began her TED Talk in December 2010, the trial balloon for the Lean In campaign, with a one-sentence nod to ―flex time,‖ training, and other ―programs‖ that might advance working women, and then declared, ―I want to talk about none of that today.‖ What she wanted to talk about, she said, was ―what we can do as individuals‖ to climb to the top of the command chain. This clipped, jarring shift from the collective grievances of working women to the feel-good options open to credentialed, professional types is also a pronounced theme in Lean In, the book. In the opening pages, Sandberg acknowledges that ―the vast majority of women are struggling to make ends meet,‖ but goes on to stress that ―each subsequent chapter focuses on an adjustment or difference that we can make ourselves.‖ When asked in a radio interview in Boston about the external barriers women face, Sandberg agreed that women are held back ―by discrimination and sexism and terrible public policy‖ and ―we should reform all of that,‖ but then immediately suggested that the concentration on such reforms has been disproportionate, arguing that ―the conversation can‘t be only about that, and in a lot of ways the conversation on women is usually only about that.‖ Toward the end of the Q&A period at the Menlo Park event, a student watching online asked, ―What would you say to the critics who argue that lower socioeconomic status makes it difficult to lean in?‖ Sandberg replied that leaning in might be even ―more important for women who are struggling to make ends meet,‖ then offered this anecdote as evidence: She had received a fan email from a reader who ―never graduated from college‖ and had gone back to work in 1998 after her husband lost his job.

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