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# CityWatch Today: Michelle Obama On Leaning In: ‘That S\*\*t Doesn’t Work All the Time’
December 03 2018
Written by Alanna Vagianos.
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GUEST COLUMNIST--Former first lady [Michelle Obama](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/topic/michelle-obama) made it pretty clear over the weekend that “leaning in” isn’t always the way to go.
“That whole ‘so you can have it all.’ Nope, not at the same time,” Obama said Saturday during an event to promote her memoir *Becoming*, according to [The Cut](https://www.thecut.com/2018/12/michelle-obama-lean-in-becoming-book-tour.html). “That’s a lie. And it’s not always enough to lean in, because that shit doesn’t work all the time.”
The crowd of 19,000 reportedly erupted with laughter at the sound of the former first lady cursing on stage.
“I forgot where I was for a moment!” she added quickly, according to [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/12/michelle-obama-book-tour-at-barclays-center). “I thought we were at home, y’all. I was gettin’ real comfortable up in here.”
The “leaning in” method became popular in 2013 when Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’ published the book *[Lean In: Women, Work And The Will To Lead](https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Women-Work-Will-Lead/dp/0385349947?tag=thehuffingtop-20),* which argued that women could “have it all” ― family, career and happiness ― if they worked hard enough. The practice has been criticized in the last few years as putting more pressure on women. Sandberg herself later [admitted](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/03/29/sheryl-sandberg-interview-lean-in-four-years-later/99749464/?platform=hootsuite) that leaning in hasn’t been as effective as she had hoped.
A young girl asked Obama during an earlier stop on her book tour whether she was going to run for president.
“I don’t wanna be president!” the former first lady said at the Lower Eastside Girls Club in Manhattan. “My path has never been politics. I just happened to marry somebody whose passion was politics. Just because he likes it doesn’t mean that I like it!”
(Alanna Vagianos is the Women's Reporter at HuffPost where this piece first appeared.)
-cw
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