Empowering Yourself

Today I read an article written by Sheryl Sandburg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, and about her experience speaking on Ted Talks. I proceeded to watch her actual video posted on Ted Talks, which is a site of motivational speakers sharing their empowering stories and ideas which range from just about any subject. Sheryl Sandburg’s in particular was ‘wowing’ to me. Here is this woman who is the Chief Operating Officer for one of the biggest forms of social media in the world, and is ranked by Forbes as the number sixth most powerful woman in the world, speaking directly to us woman about holding our own.
In her talk she focuses on three things that as working woman we should do.
• First is to “Sit at the table”,do not get seated to the side, your thoughts and your input, in any field, is just as important as any man’s out there. So be confident in yourself, be engaged, and sit at the table.
• The second message she addresses is “make your partner a real partner”. For those women out there in relationships, married or not, you must work at making that relationship a partnership. More often than not woman get the short end of the stick when it comes to pursuing their career. This is usually due to society’s stereotypes. When you start having kids and someone needs to be home with them, who usually is the one to do it? The woman. Well that needs to change. We need to stop stunting our career aspirations just because of society’s image of what a mother is. Do not be fooled, you can be a strong compassionate mother, wife and worker; it just takes a little effort.
• Lastly Sheryl Sandburg talked about not clocking out until it is truly time, or in other words “Don’t leave before you leave”. It is important to consider the future you want to have, whether that is getting married, having kids or any other choice you want to make, but it is really important to keep yourself in ‘the game’ until the very last possible minute. As women we tend to slow down when we begin to start a family, whereas Sheryl Sandburg is suggesting to “keep your foot on the gas pedal”, keep the drive in your life to succeed and keep the determination of empowering yourself.
I feel empowered by what Sheryl Sandburg said. I don’t want to ever live my life to less than my abilities. She reminded me that what I, Hanna Bjork, have to offer is important, and to not let anyone tell me differently. She reminded me, down the road, any relationship I may be in should be a partnership, where we both are encouraged to thrive in what we want to do. And she reinforced to me that you can be it all. You can be the mother you want to be, you can be the wife you want to be and you can for sure be the worker you want to be.


Hanna Bjork
Auburn University
Sophomore