I read this book upon a recommendation from another working woman. As she described it to me, she noted that Sandberg reflects that perhaps women aren’t getting the promotions and opportunities that they would like to because they are limiting themselves before anyone in the work place every does.

Of course, this caught my interest as a female entrepreneur, and I wanted to know more. After reading three chapters, what I realized is that Sandberg was depending heavily on other people’s research and observations making her book a great resource for those who haven’t read or followed women in the workplace trends, but making her book redundant for those who have.

Although she notes that as a working mom, she and her husband had access financially to a lot of help, so that they both could return to their fast-pace, high-income jobs, the position that she already held when she was pregnant making it hard for those of us on the bottom rungs to relate to her experience and take her advice about working less and spending time with our families because there are those in the business world who can set their own schedules (Sandberg), and then those who follow the rules set by their supervisors and managers (the rest of us).

While she is honest about her own struggles to ask or seek out promotions, what alludes her is the unique opportunities she had to make it to the top, and the fact that in the midst of her rising to the top, there were many women over whom she stepped. Yes, I believe women need to step up and speak out and “sit at the table” as she says, but the very real aspect of being a working woman is that there are those who make it and those who don’t.

And that’s not always dependent on whether you speak up and “sit at the table” or not.