Define a Problem

If your purpose is to propose a solution to a problem, you might begin your document by defining the problem. Jody Greenstone Miller uses this strategy to introduce her news feature about the difficulty of keeping women in top jobs.

Why aren’t more women running things in America? It isn’t for lack of ambition or life skills or credentials. The real barrier to getting more women to the top is the unsexy but immensely difficult issue of time commitment: Today’s top jobs in major organizations demand 60-plus hours of work a week.

In her much-discussed new book, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg tells women with high aspirations that they need to “lean in” at work — that is, assert themselves more. It’s fine advice, but it misdiagnoses the problem. It isn’t any shortage of drive that leads those phalanxes of female Harvard Business School grads to opt out. It’s the assumption that senior roles have to consume their every waking moment. More great women don’t “lean in” because they don’t like the world they’re being asked to lean into.