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Comment by burgerbrain | Hacker News Reader

Her connection with Summers was an academic/professional one that she formed herself. She earned the respect of the right person, and reaped the rewards for doing so.

If it were some sort of nepotism then you might have a point, but since it's not it really just shows the opposite of what you suggest. It shows that women are able to improve their own station in exactly the same way men do. And had it been nepotism, it would show nothing more than women can do it the other way men do it as well.

Can most women do this to the degree she has? No. Just like most men can't.

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Ok let's get back to the basics of this discussion. I said that I didn't like Sandberg saying that the glass ceiling doesn't exist because she wouldn't know much about it since she got to side step it. You came along and started talking about how I was downplaying her hard work. Not so, she's a hardworking person who is also exceptionally smart. I'm not sure if you're just trying to disagree with me for the sake of disagreement, but you are seeing things in my comments that aren't there, at least not intentionally.

I'm trying the best I can to explain why calling what she did "sidestepping" is nonsensical. Apparently I'm not doing it well enough.

"Nonsensical?" There's no need to be rude. We're both allowed to have an opinion. And for the record, it's not "nonsensical" to say that she sidestepped the traditional corporate experience most women have because she did just that. She was able to do that based on her exceptional talent/intelligence and the connections she had/made.

I intended no rudeness. It merely seems to me that saying that someone who failed to be stopped by the glass ceiling "sidestepped" something is like saying Chuck Yeager "sidestepped" the sound barrier. They didn't sidestep it, they played by the rules and broke it.

Anyway, let me attempt to convey my general point again: The way I see it there are exactly 2 basic ways advancing. Nepotism, and combinations of luck/hardwork/getting noticed.

I don't know anyone who suggests that there is a glass ceiling preventing women from taking advantage of nepotism. Rather, every explanation of the glass ceiling theory that I have had presented to me boils down to in some way: luck/hardwork/getting noticed doesn't work for women.

Sandberg worked hard, got noticed, and arguably got a little lucky. Bypassing the glass ceiling would be to utilize nepotism but she went clear through it.

Perhaps it does exist, but Sandberg shows it's certainly not impermeable.

edit: s/wall/ceiling/

I don't know anyone who suggests that there is a glass ceiling preventing women from taking advantage of nepotism.

As I think about it a bit more, I disagree. Luck/hard work/getting noticed by definition really isn't about anything other than merit and luck, so if a glass ceiling exists it has to be related to nepotism.

What about family businesses being taken over more often by sons than daughters? Parents using connections to find their son a job, and find their daughter a husband?

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