HBS Alumna Aims to Broaden the Horizons of ‘Lean In’: MBA News

Sheryl Sandberg’s message of female empowerment in the workplace through the Lean In campaign is one that continues to gain traction at a time when the dearth of women in leadership positions remains high on the business agenda.

However, a fellow Harvard Business School (HBS) alumna and graduate of the MBA program’s class of 2014, believes the scope of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In is too ‘narrowly defined’ in its concentration on encouraging women to reach their career goals and successfully climb the corporate ladder.

The HBS alumna, Victoria Song, has therefore launched a new alternative platform to Lean In for female empowerment.

‘So She Did’ intends to build on the work of Sheryl Sandberg and Lean In in a “broader and more encompassing mission, seeking to celebrate accomplishments in all aspects of life - whether in one’s career, relationships, or personal growth,” according to the press release announcing So She Did’s launch last week.

So She Did and Female Empowerment

So She Did derives from a phrase: ‘She believed she could, So She Did.’ Song says she gained her own self-belief, and the confidence to launch her message of female empowerment, during her time at Harvard Business School.

Writing for Harvard Business School’s class portrait project, the HBS alumna says the school’s community gave her the “strength and clarity to launch the social movement I was meant to start… it is my dream that So She Did will become a beacon for all other women to chart their own course.”

Song’s own course has already seen noteworthy results in her work with venture capital firm Flybridge and, during her summer break at HBS, she had the opportunity to work on Google’s Project Loon, which floats balloons around space to fill internet connectivity gaps for those in remote and rural communities.

Female empowerment begins on the inside, believes Song; accordingly, So She Did is running a digital magazine that will draw on the HBS alumna’s connections to school faculty in producing career advice, alongside articles aimed at helping women to live a sustaining and rewarding life in general – with women of college age named as a key demographic.

So She Did wants to position itself as the ‘wise and caring older sister’ to this defining point in a person’s life and help them to achieve their personal, as well as professional, development goals.