- checking login information
Loading...Can Marissa Mayer Have It All?
It’s impossible not to feel excited, inspired, just darned pleased, that Marissa Mayer is Yahoo’s new CEO and, indeed, the first ever pregnant CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Maybe the world is becoming a better place for women after all.
Mayer resigned from Google on Monday and started as Yahoo’s new CEO on Tuesday. She’s a 37-year-old engineer in a field very much dominated by men and, indeed, by young 20-something guys. She is six months pregnant with a “super-active” boy who is due on October 7 and she is planning on barely taking any maternity leave. As she told Fortune:
“I like to stay in the rhythm of things. My maternity leave will be a few weeks long and I’ll work throughout it.”
As recently noted here on Care2.com, the US is distinctly behind the rest of the world in providing maternity leave, much less paternity leave:
Out of 178 nations, the U.S. is one of three that does not offer paid maternity leave benefits, let alone paid leave for fathers, which more than 50 of these nations offer.
…
American women are offered 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which exempts companies with fewer than 50 paid employees, but in 2011, only 11 percent of private sector workers and 17 percent of public workers reported that they had access to paid maternity leave through their employer. And for first-time mothers, only about half can take paid leave when they give birth.
Factor in that 50 percent of American families had two working parents in 2010 and that 26 percent of households are headed by single parents: Without guaranteed maternity leave, many American women may not even be able to take a few weeks off after giving birth.
Is Mayer Setting the Wrong Example?
Writing in the Washington Post, Janice D’Arcy notes that Mayer has “come under attack in some quarters” for saying she is not really taking any time off after the birth of her son, raising two questions:
What’s the benefit of a new mom in such a high-profile position if she’s going to act like she doesn’t need maternity leave?
And, does Mayer have a responsibility to advocate for the rest of working parents?
When it comes to maternity leave, most companies, says D’Arcy, provide the barest legal requirement for either parent, with businesses of 50 or more employees offering twelve weeks of unpaid family leave. Less than a quarter offer any paid family leave; seven weeks of paid leave is the most generous according to a survey by Working Mother magazine.
Women have had much to say regarding Mayer’s optimism about starting an extremely high-profile job with the eyes of the world on her at the same time she becomes a mother: She’s doing other working mothers no favors, she is playing into the hands of people who say maternity leave is unnecessary, she is completely unrealistic. Certainly, Mayer is assuming neither she nor the baby have any complications that might require the unexpected “drop everything to take care of the baby!” moments I’ve had in 15 years of motherhood and work.
Can Mayer Have It All?
Care2 blogger Ashley Lauren recently wrote about whether or not women can “have it all” — can have a full-time career and be full-time mothers — and Mayer’s appointment as Yahoo CEO and impending pregnancy have brought such issues again to the fore. Writing from across the Atlantic in the Guardian, Jane Martinson offers Mayer plenty of praise but wonders at her statements about maternity leave.
Read more: facebook, glass ceiling, google, internet, marissa mayer, maternity leave, motherhood, paternity leave, silicon valley, technology, working mother, yahoo
Photo by Fortune Live Media
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
Recent Comments from Causes
Please FLAG Jacky R. on May 19th, that is a STINKING AD! Please ALWAYS FLAG such STINKING ADS so Care2…
The religious right are complete idiots. I should know. I am related to a lot of them.
Hi Friends, Please check "seniordatingreview.yolasite.com" and find out the top choice from the 17 Senior…
meet our writers
16 comments
+ add your ownIs she the only woman who were ever able to work and raise children. I know a few who have gone back to work shortly after having their baby, but not like this woman because she wants to. But because they had to. Wake up woman all over the world has been doing what she is doing now without complaining or boasting about it.
Ask Marissa Mayer in 20 years whether it was all worth it! In attempting to have it all, was it worth not being with her baby more?
I applaud anyone who wants to have it all as long as they go into the race with their eyes fully open, and are prepared to say "enough" when the time demands.
She will be able to have it all because she can afford it, can afford help and probably will be able to take off when she needs to do so. Most women aren't so lucky, and have a harder or impossible time to have it all. But I say "good for her" that she has crashed thru the glass ceiling with a baby on board and I hope she does a bang up job there, and am sure she will be a great mom. Women who break barriers, make a hole for others to get thru. Maybe she'll have a nursery in her office or at her job, and then maybe other places will do so. Women make all things possible.
nobody can have it all
She'll "work through it" like a good little robot.
Would you ask this same question of a male? Women routinely work up to the time of delivery and most are back on the job at 6 weeks. What of it? Women have dreams, goals, aspirations, brains, and talent just as men do. We are more than breasts and a uterus. Marissa will have her baby and then have hired help and the father who has a flexible schedule help care for the baby. Have you never heard of nannies, day care, and baby formula? Geez, this IS the 21st century!
Uhm no nobody can have it all sorry.
David- historically you are accurate in terms of maternity leave and mothers however times have changed. Previously the many women were not in the workforce but stayed home. Yes, they had responsibilities at home especially if it was farming but the mother was able to keep the new child with them at all times. This allowed the mother and child to exclusively breast feed and bond. Our society has yet to adapt to the changing demands on women who are now not solely in the home and often are the breadwinners in the family.
I wish her luck in her new job, and hope she and her new baby (when the little one comes) will be happy and healthy.
Thank you for the article...
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment