ABSTRACT
In our interviews, when we asked women to reflect on how they navigated their way through the American workplace, many of them mentioned Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.1 In her book Sandberg exhorts women to “take a seat at the table” and to proactively seek out mentors, allies and professional opportunities. She notes that men tend to be significantly more adept at building social capital – relationships based on reciprocity that are key to success in the workplace. While acknowledging barriers that women may face, she regularly exhorts women to take ownership of this challenge and proactively seek out sponsors who can help them navigate their careers.2 In this chapter, we see that our respondents have developed creative ways to develop their careers through professional and personal ties. In some ways, Indian immigrant women have long been following Sandberg’s playbook. However, we will see that public policies and collective action have also been crucial to their success. The experiences we describe below show us that professional advancement is certainly helped by individual strategies that can nudge changes in assumptions and attitudes. At the same, larger organization and structural changes are required to dismantle the gender and racial barriers that continue to exist.
