Pictured above: Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.
By Annabelle Mackson ’23
Staff Writer
This notion has been brewing for some time: that women cannot criticize a woman in power, whether she is a CEO or someone in a political office. If we do, we are not supportive of women’s rights and cannot call ourselves feminists or advocates for equality. This could be seen in the run-up to the 2016 election with Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Many women found that Sanders’ proposed policies were more appealing than Clinton’s, but as Abi Wilkinson states in a New Republic article, “various Clinton surrogates attempted to frame backing Sanders over her as an inherently sexist act.” Feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem even claimed that women were only supporting Sanders for male attention. It is misogynistic and heteronormative statements like these that have made many women, especially LGBTQ+ women and women of color, deeply critical of mainstream feminism.
This issue arises when the strength of women in power — what it took to get there despite gender-based obstacles — is conflated with the quality of their policies and actions. In May 1979, Margaret Thatcher, nicknamed the “Iron Lady,” became the first woman to hold the office of the British prime minister, maintaining the position for 11 years. No reasonable person would claim that Thatcher was not a strong woman, but her economic policies left the British working class floundering.
Thatcher’s achievement as the first female prime minister is a universal inspiration to young girls; it shows that women have the ability and potential to reach the same great places she did. However, what many people do not understand — a large proportion of whom call themselves feminists — is that we can acknowledge strong women’s accomplishments without endorsing their actions. Thatcher gaining a position of power that no woman had achieved before is impressive and inspirational, and it is not an attack on her accomplishments in a male-centric field to criticize what she did to the United Kingdom while she was in office.
This issue isn’t limited to the political sphere. In fact, much of the problem is seen in the corporate world. Women at the top of their respective industries are attempting to pass off their strategies for getting there as a feminist action, as if they are doing other women a favor by teaching them how to be successful. Rather than encouraging women to strive to dismantle the systems that make success nearly impossible, these female executives are telling women to bend to the demands of the system so that they can be the empowered individual who “made it.”
An excellent example of this belief in practice is Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg. While she assumed the position of COO in 2008, what really brought Sandberg into the limelight was her 2013 book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” which addresses gender inequality in politics and business and provides strategies and encouragement for women still trying to make their mark in male-dominated fields.
“Lean In” was a huge mainstream success that sold more than 1 million copies, but those praising it as a great feminist feat suffer from the same narrow-mindedness as mainstream feminism in general. Sandberg’s success story only applies to white middle- to upper-class women with access to a great education (Sandberg attended Harvard). While she has likely experienced discrimination as a Jewish woman, Sandberg’s lack of awareness regarding the difficulties women of other financial or ethnic backgrounds face in the workplace does not lend well to her credibility.
Additionally, she didn’t have to fight her way up the corporate ladder to get the position of COO; it was offered to her by Mark Zuckerberg. Recently, as Facebook has come under fire for its questionable security practices, Sandberg’s credibility has been under scrutiny as well. In an article about the Lean In Foundation, the New York Times journalist Nellie Bowles said that it was hard for her “to reckon with the idea that we have taken life and career advice from someone who could be building something that’s not good for the world.”
Whether we are considering political leaders or high-powered businesswomen, we have to be allowed to speak our opinions without ridicule. Calling the practices of a woman in power into question is not an attack — it is not stating the belief that they are a bad person or that they are not inspirational. In fact, it is our civic duty to question the people we put or want to put in power, regardless of their gender. Doing so is not misogynistic, nor is it pandering to men, and it is shocking that some of the loudest proponents of women’s rights believe that is the case. If mainstream feminism continues in this way, its advocates will end up demonizing the very people they claim to be helping. Shooting yourself in the foot won’t help you raise your fist any higher.