I’ve been thinking a lot about women and our place in society the last couple of weeks. This is appropriate, as it is Women’s History Month and was kicked off at PBS with “Makers,” a three-hour documentary on the “second-wave” women’s movement.I sat down to watch it last weekend and was enthralled. I am old enough to remember all the events portrayed in the film, but was too young at the time to grasp the significance of the earlier events. And while I happily recognize that we’ve “come a long way,” I am terribly sad and frustrated that we’re not even close to achieving true equality.

If we were truly equal, the fuss over Marissa Mayers’ no-telecommuting directive at Yahoo! would have been focused on the protests of ALL affected employees, instead of just the mothers. And Sheryl Sandberg would not have needed to advise young women to “Lean In” to get ahead in the workplace.

The volcanic national debate about women, work, and family erupts weekly these days, with Sheryl Sandberg’s much-anticipated book, Lean In, published yesterday, the news last week that Best Buy ended its flexible work-from-home ROWE initiative, and Marissa Mayer’s ban on remote working at Yahoo! the week before.

Not to flatter myself, but I am exactly who Sheryl Sandberg had in mind when she decided to write Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Thirty-five, married, mother of two young (but not too young) children, MBA who has worked consistently in one high-status industry for over a decade, and who is grappling with the next steps in her career. I’ve even got her name. And I am completely ready and willing to take in Sandberg’s advice, because I know I’m on the precipice of something. Maybe something big.

I’m a year or two away from my next promotion at the investment firm where I’ve worked since 2005. Our product is growing, I believe in it, and the opportunities arrive at a relentless pace. I’m in the office for dedicated hours four days a week, altered to meet the needs of my family, and work from home the fifth day. Working with international clients, I am generally available to respond to emails and join the occasional conference call at off hours, so that more time isn’t lost to time zone differences. I’m a highly organized and efficient employee, and I work hard.

This story originally appeared in the Carolyn Edgar blog.

There’s been a lot of talk in the media lately about women in the workplace. From Anne-Marie Slaughter’s complaining about not “having it all,” to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg exhorting women to “lean in” to their careers (translation: suck it up) and not let little things like babies disrupt their rise to the top, to Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer boasting about her two-week maternity leave and cancelling the company’s telecommuting policy — op-ed pages and Facebook news feeds are full of people, mostly women, debating who has it right, wrong, or in-between.

There’s much about this “debate” that irritates me.