So Sheryl Sandberg, multigazillionaire and alleged booster of women, wants an unpaid staffer:
We’ve found a copy of an unpaid job listing Lean In Foundation’s editor-at-large tried to delete. If Facebook’s celeb COO Sheryl Sandberg just made $91 million last week (and God only knows how much from her book), why can’t she pay her interns a cent?
Maybe the best way to attack gender-based income disparities is to pay women literally nothing, to the extent that they stop caring? The comments on the Facebook posting are equally skeptical:
Why does lean in offer an unpaid internship? Really? I thought women should lean in and demand more money. Unpaid work, be it internships for young women or volunteer positions for older moms, is exploitive. Shame on lean in. Pay up.
I’m wondering the same thing—but so far an inquiry to Jessica Bennett, who posted the ad, has gone unanswered.
Update: Bennett posted again to Facebook, saying that the job listing was not “official,” which doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense:
Dear What Appears to Be My Entire Facebook Feed:
Want to clarify previous Lean In post. This was MY post, on MY feed, looking for a volunteer to help me in New York. LOTS of nonprofits accept volunteers. This was NOT an official Lean In job posting. Let’s all take a deep breath.
Volunteer, editorial intern—call it whatever you want when it’s unpaid work, right?
Sheryl Sandberg made $91 million last week when she cashed in her Facebook stock. Not only is she cheap, this listing describes an illegal internship.
“No, no, no… this position is for my personal slave. It’s not a job posting!”
The 1% are all liars. Every last man and woman of them. That’s how they maintain the wealth gap between them and the rest of us.
So, is the position still available?
Something happens to people when they reach a certain level. My guess is they think just basking in their presence is worth money. I’m surprised they aren’t selling the position.
They do that with a lot of internships now: Auction them off to the highest bidder. For “charity.” Rich parents buy them for their kids.