The faster my career accelerated at Facebook, the more my financial returns diminished, until my workload was being elevated but not my salary or equity. Katherine Lewis, 'What Does 'Leaning In' Look Like For Working Moms?',, 29 Jan. If you are leaning in, as Sheryl Sandberg uses the term, you'll seize the opportunity to be promoted to the next level even if the chance comes when you have small children and you might have a tougher time juggling work and family in your new role. The words lean in became lexical shorthand for the act or process of a woman's asserting herself in the workplace: (In fact, Sandberg herself admitted in 2016 that advice she gave in her book did not take into account the difficulty single mothers faced when trying to advance their careers). Sandberg's book came out in the midst of a broader discussion regarding the work/life balance of women in corporate America, and while it became a bestseller, it also garnered a fair amount of criticism. Sandberg's book outlines business strategies to help women achieve success, and its title perfectly paints a picture of what Sandberg believes women need to do to move up in the business world: to press ahead, to project confidence, to 'sit at the table' and physically lean in to make herself heard. Lean in became a business motto in 2013, taken from the title of the book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead written by Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, and Nell Scovell, a writer and Sandberg's collaborator.

One Guardian headline read: 'The 'Lean In' generation have become addicted to work.

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