How Corporate Feminism Went from “Love Me” to “Buy Me”

In retrospect, the book seems an artifact of a fleetingly optimistic moment and time when feminism became mainstream—think of Beyoncé's performance in front of a screen flashing the word “FEMINIST” at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards – not only watered down the concept, but forced it to be used in the name of the free market. As Susan Faludi noted in 2013, Lean In belongs to a tradition dating back to at least 1920, when mass merchandisers used emancipatory idioms to compete for women's money. Sandberg, who described her book as “just a kind of feminist manifesto,” refreshed the old desire for consumerism by bringing it to the workplace. It was not so much that she contributed to the accumulation of material resources, although she did so, but that her financial resources, which allowed her to “provide any help I needed,” were a tacit prerequisite for most her advice. (Note the sensitivity of her allusion to childcare costs: the careful exclusion of offspring is a trademark of pop-feminist self-help.) The agenda she espoused, less privileged women, was a copycat regime—a kind of “fake it 'til you make it” regime under which everyone behaves as if she was Sheryl Sandberg. It was a savvy move of self-promotion—recognizability backed by an element of seduction, jokes, and encouragement delivered in Sandberg's warm, vulnerable, and trusting voice.

Cartoon by Liana Fink

But if Lean In's prescriptions seemed hollow even at the time, both Sandberg and the women's movement ultimately had larger problems. We've learned that Sandberg's company is harming the mental health of teenage girls, insufficiently protecting users' personal information, and possibly eroding democracy. (According to Georgetown Law Professor Rose Brooks told Time“Not everything should be relied upon.”) Sandberg left Facebook in 2022 amid headlines highlighting her “mixed heritage.” Meanwhile, feminism saw Hillary Clinton's defeatin 2016, a man was accused of sexual assault; That overturning Roe v. Wade; #MeToo backlash; And Defeat of Kamala Harrisin 2024, to the same person. Although Sandberg's core ideas now seem outdated, her approach to self-commercialization is ubiquitous. We've taken a scorched earth approach to feminism in the workplace, burning away the last vestiges of institutional support and structure until all that's left is the brand.

All the cool girls get fired: how to get rid of the scapegoat and return to the topby Laura Brown and Christina O'Neill, is one of several feminist-smelling proposals to rise from the ashes. This seems like a direct blow back and a sign of the times: a woman leaves the company, becomes an entrepreneur. Both Brown and O'Neill worked in fashion journalism, Brown was a magazine editor InStyle and O'Neill as editor WSJ Magazineand both, they write, “were massively and super-publicly fired; two ducks were unceremoniously splashed out of the water.” The book combines friendly encouragement: “Well, welcome to the party, baby!” the authors crow about new canned food – with practical advice for life after dismissal. Chapters on finding employment lawyers, securing health care, minimizing expenses, and finding sources of income are interspersed with stories of famous women who have lost their jobs, including Lisa Kudrow, Katie Couric, and Oprah. “The corner office isn't everything,” Brown and O'Neill write in a lively, irreverent tone. “True power comes from individualism. And guess what helps you come to that realization? Getting fired.”

Brown and O'Neill devote a chapter to managing public perceptions of job loss: strive to leave with dignity and composure; make an announcement “I was fired”; solicit introductions and hold as many meetings as possible to provide “proof of life.” Another chapter encourages you to explain your departure directly: “Keep it high and hard. War and Peace” In Brown and O'Neill's construction, the savvy, newly unemployed woman is a memoirist as adept at omitting as she is at arranging details. And as a memoirist, she often tries to erase shame, a word that appears thirty-one times in the book. “The truth is not shameful,” they write. “It's liberating! There is real power in saying, “Yes, I got fired.” When you own it, you take away the stigma.”

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