Sheryl Sandberg, The Public Intellectual

 

As an aspiring business woman, I have always been impressed by the women who have been able to successfully make it to the top. With that being said, for the past few years I have idolized over Sheryl Sandberg and all of her academic and professional achievements. Sandberg is a very intelligent woman who made a gutsy move to Silicon Valley after getting her MBA and started working at a very small start up, which is better known today as Google. From there, Sheryl moved down the street to another small office where she took on an executive leadership position and the company has now become the largest social media website in the world, referred to more frequently as Facebook. Overall, Sheryl has enough work experience to make any young opportunistic student aspire to be like her, but the one thing that sets her apart from the other executives she has worked with is that she is a female. More importantly, Sheryl Sandberg is a female that publicly speaks about feminism and how women need to raise the bar for themselves in order to achieve equally. Sheryl Sandberg is no doubt an intellect, and she has recently made her way into the public eye by speaking on the platform for more women in business and published a book about closing the gap between male and female success. Is this a one hit wonder for Sandberg, or will she continue to inspire the generation Y’s to succeed just as she did? 

Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer at arguably the largest social media site in the world, Facebook. Her resume includes being a Harvard undergraduate and graduate, one of Google’s first hundred employees, voted one of the most powerful women in business, and last but not least, she has accomplished a spot on the list of most influential people in the world. If that is not enough, she was elected onto the board of some of the most recognized companies in the world, including the Walt Disney Company and Starbucks. Not to mention that she has an estimated net worth of over a billion dollars. There is no doubt that the aforementioned classify her as an intellect. But when it comes to her public appearances, she lacks notoriety. In 2013, Sandberg released a book titled Lean In: Work, Women, and the Will to Lead, which made her presence more known to the world. Previous to the release of her book, Sandberg gave a few TED talks and spoke at universities across the country about what it is like to be a woman with such a high up position in such a well-known company.

Over the past few years, Sheryl has taken a stand for women who are trying secure executive roles in Fortune 500 companies. After reading her book, there is no question about her idea of feminism: she is most definitely a feminist and believes that women should have equal rights and equal say in the workforce. The thing that stands out about Sandberg is that she doesn’t believe that men are the reason for the apparent discrepancy between genders in the workforce, she thinks the majority of the problem is the way women view and treat themselves. Unlike many feminists in the past, Sandberg believes that if women are informed of what they are doing wrong, they are more likely to be able to overcome this inequality, which will allow them to get to the top and achieve the executive positions that they dream about. This was precisely the focus of her book, Lean In.

In Lean In, she is informing the public, women specifically, how to “lean in” and take the necessary steps to keep them on track to climb the ladder to the executive leadership positions. Sandberg believes that “in addition to the external barriers erected by society, women are hindered by barriers that exist within themselves. We hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in.” If anything could summarize the book in a few short sentences, it would be the above quote. The points that Sandberg addressed are extremely crucial for individual growth within females, and Sandberg is trying very hard to make this known to the general public. I graciously applaud Sandberg for standing up for herself (and even for men) by saying that we, women, are at fault. It takes a lot of strength to go into a room full of driven, ambitious women and say that it’s actually not the men’s fault, it is our, and as soon as we make the necessary changes, we will be able to overcome the barriers that are placed in front of the executive positions. I think this correlates very strongly to Jean Bethke Elshtain’s more secular view of public intellectuals, specifically that public intellectuals should be “party poopers.” I think Sandberg nails this head on, because she basically preaches to women that they are the ones making mistakes, and constructive criticism is essential to play the role as the public intellectual. Additionally, she is a “party pooper” because she isn’t telling her audience necessarily what they want to hear, but rather what they need to hear.

Stephen Mack makes a very good argument in The “Decline” of the Public Intellectual when he mentioned that the measure of a public intellectual is about if people are hearing things worth conversing about, rather than just simply listening to what the public intellect has to say. That being said, I think it will be a testament to Sheryl Sandberg if women start to “lean in” and close the gap in the work force, rather than just read the book and forget about everything she said. I think even more than having people hear things worth talking about, a public intellectual’s duty is to say something that invokes change. People, women especially, can listen and talk about Sheryl Sandberg’s advice forever, but if they aren’t willing to rise up and take matters into their own hands, I think that would reflect poorly on Sandberg’s attempt to be a public influence. Going back to Elshtain’s point that “learning the processes of criticism and practicing them with some regularity are requisites for intellectual employment,” there is no doubt that Sandberg has learned the process of criticism throughout her work and life experiences. Even more so, she used those criticisms to help her grow stronger and is trying to enable others to do the same. Thus, she has achieved her intellectual employment, and is now trying to provide her experience to the public.

The one thing that could hinder Sheryl Sandberg from being classified as a true public intellectual is the fact that her feminist idea and message is very narrow. I am not sure if she is the type of person to give a speech about leaning in, publish a book, and then slowly fade out of the public eye, or if she will continue to impress the public with her inspirational advice. I may be mistaken, and she may have a larger vision than just increasing the amount of women in leadership roles in business, only time will tell. Additionally, I am not sure how much she can influence women about continually rising up if the women are reluctant to listen. That being said, the power of her message is strong, but if it is not fully implemented by her listeners, it could reflect in no change at all and question her ability to be a memorable public intellect. However, I think all of this uncertainty could be eliminated if women give it a shot and realize that her criticism and advice is actually meaningful. I actually think that once people start to address the internal barriers, it will be a domino effect and more people will tune in to what Sheryl Sandberg has to say.

Aside from the slight uncertainty that she will not continue to be publicized, Sheryl Sandberg is a very intelligent woman that has a lot of advice and experience that could help change the way major businesses are lead. If we all just learn to lean in and apply Sandberg’s definition of success, “making the best choices and accepting them,” to our future careers, maybe more women will rise up to the top. Imagine a world where there are just as many females as males at the top? Not only would the word “feminist” start to be used more sparingly, but also young girls would be more hopefully of their future careers. Girls would strive to become more successful and the gap would disappear. Should Sheryl Sandberg’s message become a contagious message, more people would consider her to be a public intellect worth remembering.