Recently, I have been recommended to read the book written by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book ‘Lean In’. So here’s a quick review, please do share your thoughts with me as I am a newbie in the book review department.

Sheryl’s book is not only a practical one that offers advice with a great vision and mission behind it, but it was packaged with humourous anecdotes.

So the message of the book is to encourage women to chase their dreams and pursue their ambitions.

She pointed out that although there have been advancements, with women enjoying a lot more freedom compare to the past, only 9% of US top job workers are women.

Women are still not equal. She talked about the internal and external barriers faced by women. There is no doubt that many of the inequalities are caused by society pressures and expectations; the fact that woman who works full time actually has two jobs—her day job and being a housewife. But she offered even more profound reasons for almost zero improvement on gender equality in the last 10 years. She illustrated that women themselves are the ones that hold back on the movement; such as fear, the lack of self-confidence in being a great achiever; she argued that we even feel guilty for our success. One practical advice she gave me us is that every time when we are scared, we should ask ourselves ‘what would you do if you weren’t afraid?’ I find it extremely useful as it means we have to face our fears and derive plans to conquer them. Another thing she talked about is that women tend to underestimate themselves. I thought this is a struggle that only I face but it turns out that one of the most influential woman also struggles. She adviced us to have self confidence and cliche it might sound; fake it until you make. Her sharing is extremely close to heart and a very honest one. She is willing to put herself into a vulnerable position. The creation of this book is a leading example, whereby she brings out the courage to share with the public her fears and weaknesses she faces each day.

Many might not agree with her arguments of ‘sit at the table’ but at least changes in attitudes will ultimately give women more power to choose what they want. Her sharing of her own self-doubts and insecurities made me realise im not alone in the game. Growing up in a single-parented family myself, the idea of woman being not capable has never come across my mind. Thanks to my mother, she with her own pair of hands have raised both my sister and I up. My mother made it because of the circumstances. Sheryl made it because she chose to do it. She is very inspiring and encouraged me to really think about my role in the future as a woman.