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Reader question: Please explain the title of the book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”, particularly “lean in”. My comments: To lean in or not to lean in. That is a good question. It is the question for many ambitious young women who want to make it big in their career. Basically, if they want to be like the big boys, they’d better lean in, and lean all the way in, into the inner circle and be, always, in the thick of things. To lean in literally means to incline our body, move forward and press into a conversation, a crowd, a discussion or something instead of leaning away, backing off. At the office, of course, “leaning in” is now a movement in America, thanks to this very book, written by Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook. In her book, which was first published in 2013, she advises women to lean in instead of lay back, to be aggressive and to take opportunities at work by the scruff of the neck, so to speak. Women are not always like that, of course. They tend to be shy and bashful, naturally inclined to defer to men, especially the alpha men, those who are ready to howl and growl in order to fight and fend for their causes, whatever those causes are – not unlike a dog. The way I describe it, it does not look like a flattering scene but seriously, if you really want to make it big and be successful in the office or society at large, you will find it not much unlike what I describe. | 
