Feminist side:
“The world is still run by men, so unless women burst onto the stage with more ambition, they’ll never make it there”.
Right back to her university days, Sheryl Sandberg understood that, if she wanted to be successful, she would need to develop her leadership skills. With this in mind, she was always involved in political movements and even founded some groups, such as Women in Economics and Government. As a woman in a society in which men are used to having the first and last word, Sandberg knew that she had to make twice the effort, so she joined the feminist fight and became one of the most important figureheads of female empowerment of the 21st Century.
Sandberg founded the Lean In organization which, in 2016, changed its name to the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation. Through this Foundation, the activist has created a network of female support that strives to unite, educate and accompany women all over the world throughout their journey of personal and professional development. In addition, she has published a number of books, including “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead” (2013), which discusses strengthening female qualities, “Option B” (2017), which focuses on overcoming the challenges that life throws at you.
Family side:
“There's no such thing as work-life balance. There's work, and there's life, and there's no balance”.
Sandberg’s demanding professional career has not prevented her from having a fulfilling family life, and she is the mother of two children. However, her personal life has been full of challenges. On 1st May 2015, her second husband David Goldberg died from a heart attack. The United States and much of the world joined Sandberg in her loss, as the couple had become a symbol of success and progress in North American society. Her second book ‘Option B’ (2017) was a kind of catharsis in which Sandberg shared her pain and the strategies that helped her carry on. “Resilience is a muscle you build in yourself, in other people, in children.” With this phrase, Sandberg summed up the book, and this word, resilience, is perhaps the characteristic that best defines her in her life as a mother, a feminist and an executive.
