#2

Sandburg shares an anecdote where she is in an important business meeting and a group of female executives come into the meeting. They sit farther away from the male executives even though they are at the same level on the totem pole. Even when asked by Sandburg to move up, they politely decline. After the meeting Sandburg pulls them aside to ask why they chose to sit in a different place. They eventually all agreed that these women should have asserted themselves.

Sandburg talks about going up to a group of women who did not sit at the same part of the table in a business meeting and pointing out that they were invited but chose not to join anyways. She simply pulls them aside and asks why they didn't assert themselves physically. The women reflect and eventually agree with Sheryl saying that they should have been more confident in sitting with the other men. This anecdote puzzles me a bit. What about all four of these women did not feel comfortable sitting with the rest of the business people if they themselves were businesswomen? Why did Sheryl Sandburg feel justified to approach them, pull them aside, and call them out for their behavior? Most other women would notice and feel frustrated, but what made Sandburg feel it would be appropriate to put the other women on the spot? I wonder if Sandburg is a likable person, this story almost makes her seem a little intrusive or nosey. At the same time, I might feel differently if she had been a man pulling the women aside to ask why they didn't feel comfortable sitting with the men. Maybe this is my own internalized sexism, and I now have the opportunity to address it within myself.

Also, in my academic life, most of the girls will be the ones to sit in the front of the classroom, raise their hands, etc. It’s the boys who are quiet or sit off to the side. Is this going to change when I enter a career, or is the nation changing?