Sheryl Sandberg saga shows it's time to lean out of corporate feminism

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/01/sheryl-sandberg-lean-out-corporate-feminism Arwa Mahdawi Capitalism has coopted feminism and become a way for privileged women to advance their careers. We say: enough Sat 1 Dec 2018 14.00 GMT Last modified on Sat 1 Dec 2018 14.02 GMT Sheryl Sandberg. Having more women in powerful positions means nothing if all they’re doing is leaning into exploitative capitalist conventions. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images It’s time to lean out of corporate feminism Say what you like about Sheryl Sandberg, you can’t deny that she’s leaned all the way in to Facebook’s unethical business practices! Facebook, as per usual, is currently facing a number of scandals of its own making. These include revelations that it hired Definers, a conservative PR firm, to discredit critics by leveraging antisemitic conspiracy theories about George Soros. Sandberg, who is Fakebook’s chief operating officer, initially distanced herself from the scandal. On Thursday, however, the New York Times published a report alleging Sandberg was far more intimately involved than she’d let on – in fact, she had allegedly personally ordered research on Soros. According to the Times, Sandberg asked Facebook’s communication staff to look into whether the liberal billionaire had any financial motivations for criticizing the company. (Soros delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in January where he called Facebook and Google “menaces”. ) Facebook policy chief admits hiring PR firm to attack George Soros The Soros story is just the latest blow to Sandberg’s reputation, both as an executive and as a supposed feminist. Five years after Sandberg published Lean In, it would appear that capitalism’s favourite feminist has finally fallen from grace. She may not have been fired from Facebook (yet) but Sandberg is definitely no longer the chief operating officer of Feminism LLC. If this sordid story is good for anything, I hope it serves as a reminder that we need to push back against corporate feminism. Capitalism has coopted feminism and turned it into a way for privileged women to advance their careers and sell books. Ivanka Trump has written a “feminist” book, for God’s sake! Obviously, being a rich and successful woman does not make you a feminist. Fighting for all the equality of all women does. Having more women in powerful positions means nothing if all they’re doing is leaning into exploitative capitalist conventions. Sandberg is a very clear example of that. The gender pay gap is even worse than we thought A new report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research says women in the US earn 49 cents to men’s dollar. The report notes: “The commonly used figure to describe the gender wage ratio – that a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man–understates the pay inequality problem by leaving many women workers out of the picture.” For example, it doesn’t take into account women who have temporarily left the workforce to care for their family. But don’t let this news dishearten you, ladies, just keep on leaning in! #MeToo is not a plot against men Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement in 2006, says the campaign has become unrecognizable. Speaking at a TEDWomen event in Palm Springs, California, Burke lamented that “Suddenly, a movement to centre survivors of sexual violence is being talked about as a vindictive plot against men.” Are women more populist than men? The Guardian recently ran a quiz where you could check how ‘populist’ you are. The results of the quiz suggests leftwing populist attitudes are more common among women. Unbought and unbossed: Shirley Chisholm Sign up to the Media Briefing: news for the news-makers Read more Shirley Chisholm, who died in 2005, was the definition of a trailblazer. In 1968 Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. In 1972 she became the first woman to seek the presidential nomination of a major political party – her campaign slogan was “unbought and unbossed.” Chisholm is certainly unforgotten: the New York mayor recently announced a monument to the Brooklyn badass will be installed in Prospect Park. Viola Davis has also just signed on to star as Chisholm in the Amazon biopic The Fighting Shirley Chisholm. Snoring is a feminist issue A new study has found the hearts of women with obstructive sleep apnea, a severe form of snoring, appear to become damaged more quickly than those of men. Really hope that news doesn’t keep you up at night. Ivanka Trump keeps growing as a person Ivanka wants you to know that she is a different person now than she was when she first got a job working for her dad in the White House. In an interview with Good Morning America, the first daughter explained that: “I actually have experienced, on a personal level, this tremendous growth in my own sense of self, and seeing more brightly my own compass and signal.” On that completely nonsensical note, have a good weekend. Oh, and maybe try not let your own compass signal that it’s totally fine to send hundreds of government emails via your personal email account. Since you're here…