With all due respect to Sheryl Sanberg, she is only one of the latest women who have “leaned in” to achieve success in U.S. history. I highly recommend Gail Collins’ America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, published by William Morrow (2007). Noteworthy among hundreds of “leaners”:

o Margaret Sanger opens first birth-control clinic in the United States, 1916

o Edith Wharton is the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, 1921

o Alice Paul proposes the Equal Rights Amendment for the first time, 1923

o Amelia Earhart is the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane, 1928

o Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, becomes the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, 1932

o Frances Perkins becomes the first female member of a Presidential cabinet, 1933

o Janet Guthrie is the first woman to drive in the Indy 500, 1977

o Sally Ride was selected to be the first female astronaut, 1978

o Sandra Day O’Connor nominated to be the first woman on the Supreme Court, 1981

o Manon Rheaume is the first woman to play in an NHL game, 1992

o Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State, 1997

o Lillian Fishburne became the first black female promoted to flag rank (i.e. admiral) in U.S. Navy, 1998

o Ann Elizabeth Dunwoody is the first woman in U.S. military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer rank, 2008

o Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, 2010

Many of them and hundreds of others are discussed in Collins’ book. All of them deserve and should share much of the credit for making it possible for Sanberg and others to “lean in” now.