Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Writes Book About Women and Work

Lean In To Be Published by Knopf in March

NEW YORK, 4-Oct-12 – Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, has written a book, LEAN IN: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, to encourage women to aspire to and pursue leadership roles. It will be published by Alfred A. Knopf. The announcement was made today by Sonny Mehta, Knopf’s Chairman and Editor in Chief. The book will go on sale nationwide March 12, 2013, with a first printing of 400,000 copies and will be published simultaneously as an eBook and as a Random House Audiobook.

“Progress for women in the leadership ranks of every industry has been largely stagnant for the past decade. We can and must do better. The question we all have to ask ourselves is ‘How?,’” Sandberg says.

In LEAN IN, Sandberg offers her insights on women, work, family, and ambition. A mother of two, she offers specific advice to help women better integrate professional achievement with personal fulfillment, including how to forge more equitable relationships with their partners at home. This advice will resonate for women at all stages of their careers.

Sandberg also speaks with candor about her own personal and professional experiences, addressing conflicts she has encountered and mistakes she has made along the way. She argues that true equality for women still eludes us, buttressing her argument with salient data and research.

Sandberg says, “I wrote LEAN IN so women can make more informed choices and increase their chances of making it to the top of any field or pursue any goal with gusto. And I wrote it for men who want to understand the challenges women face so they can do their part to build an equal world.”

“I believe we need to talk about and change the real obstacles women still face in the professional world,” says Sandberg. “This book offers ideas and tools to help women overcome these obstacles, whether they’re the result of sexism or institutional discrimination; our tendency to hold ourselves back, lack confidence, or lower our hands and voices; or our willingness to internalize messages that tell us it’s wrong for women to be outspoken or powerful. Women do not have to lower our expectations of what we can achieve in the workplace. In so many situations, instead of pulling back, we should be leaning in.”

“In LEAN IN, Sheryl Sandberg gives a frank assessment of what it will take for women to move forward as equals to men,” said Mehta. “Her book is full of sound advice and informed recommendations and marked by its positive outlook. I believe LEAN IN has the power to change not only our outlook, but also the world, and that it will become a touchstone publication for a generation of women.”

“LEAN IN is an inspiring and provocative book about female leadership,” says her editor, Jordan Pavlin, “fearless, fiercely reasoned, and singularly personal. It urges women to take risks, to seek new challenges, and to find work that they love and to remain passionately engaged with it throughout their lives.”

Sandberg will be making national media appearances at the time of publication.

Alfred A. Knopf is the flagship imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is a division of Random House, Inc., whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG, the international media company. For more information about Alfred A. Knopf, visit our website at http://www.aaknopf.com

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Contact: Paul Bogaards, Executive Director of Media Relations
212-572-2177 | pbogaards@randomhouse.com