Do you “Lean In”? In the past, stereotypes and gender norms have prevented women from reaching their full potential. By “leaning in,” girls can achieve anything that boys can. You’re never too young to start!

The idea comes from a book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” which was written by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. It aimed to empower women so that they could go after their dreams and “chang[e] the conversation from what we can’t do to what we can do,” according to Sandberg.

Sandberg said that females of all ages can learn from the book. Its audience includes “young girls who are thinking about what their futures might be,” she says in a video clip about why she wrote the book.

The idea has since involved into LeanIn.Org, which has spread these ideas even further.

Lean In is building a community in which women support each other, inspiring them to grow confidence and talk to each other about what can be done to equalize girls and boys.

“I want a world where all of us – girls and boys, women and men – can realize any dream,” Sandberg wrote in a blurb on the site.

In a video clip on LeanIn.Org, Sandberg explains why she wrote the book.

“I entered the workforce believing my generation was going to have equal responsibility and equal opportunity, and it didn’t work out that way,” she says.

She goes on to say that despite the fact that women are getting more college and graduate degrees than men, in most industries women have less than 20% of the top jobs.

Women aren’t held back by lack of experience or ability. Sandberg says women are hindered by a lack of opportunity and flexibility, as well as bias.

“We also hold ourselves back,” she says. “We don’t sit at the table. We don’t raise our hands. we don’t let our voices be loud enough.”

This is what Sandberg calls “leaning back.” Women sometimes let opportunities slide because they don’t want to seem too pushy, or are intimidated by success.

“After watching myself quietly lean back and miss opportunities… I started to see the pattern and started to talk about it,” Sandberg says in the video.

Her goal is lofty but simple, and we believe it’s achievable.

It is “to encourage women to really believe in themselves and believe in their dreams and to help men to do their part to form a more equal world by making sure that all of us have opportunities based on our passions and interests, not just based on our gender.”

To learn more about Lean In, check out their website here!

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