Tech industry website TechCrunch reminded us today that although it is Not gossip site TMZ and doesn’t cover celebrity news, it is making an exception in the case of Yahoo! CEO Marisa Mayer who announced today that she and her husband are expecting twins. This is her second pregnancy.
So it’s tech news…sort of.
“Mayer leads a major technology company and is a high-profile woman working in tech, so naturally many of her decisions — and particularly how she balances work and family life — are noteworthy. Certainly, carrying — and then caring for twins — in addition to a highly charged CEO role at a prominent tech company in transition (and raising an another child) is quite the workload.”
TechCrunch doth protest too much, me thinks.
Mayer caught much flak for announcing before the baby was born that she planned to take two weeks maternity leave.
Then, she got even more grief for building a nursery addition to her office so she could take her baby to work.
Thing is, she did this months after banning Yahoo employees from working remotely.
Doh!
It was also an “I told you so” moment for us who didn’t think it would be possible for a woman, who has options and is in a position of power, to just leave her baby after two weeks.
High profile business women like Mayer and Ivanka Trump, who also announced a 2-week maternity leave, usually reverse course after baby comes & realizing that it really isn’t that easy to do, emotionally, if not physically.
They don’t want to be treated differently from their male counterparts so they overlook things like the factbreastfeeding and bonding can’t be done remotely and they, and their baby need time.
As women, they are not like men, at all!
For Mayer, it was disconcerting to some that she later decided to tie her kid to her work, but also perplexing because as CEO, she has flexibility of a luxury that regular employees don’t enjoy.
But in 2013, after she had her first child, she was one of 42 female CEOs, 4.2%, of fortune 500 and 1000 companies.
So back then and now Mayer is held to a different standard.