You may have heard that former Google exec Marissa Mayer just became the new CEO of Yahoo. Oh yeah, and she's pregnant. But far from saying yahoo, or even yippee, you may want to contain your feminist cheers. It seems Mayer, like many women today, plans on working through most of her pregnancy and taking very little time off with her baby.
Kudos to Yahoo for taking on an expectant Mayer in the age of so many pregnancy discrimination cases. Having said that, it was probably a no-brainer for the company, given that the new boss plans on sacrificing most of the time with her newborn in favour of nurturing her corporate baby.
Mayer told Fortune that her maternity leave will comprise just a few weeks during which she'll carry on working. So on one hand, it's fabulous to see a woman take up such an important office. On the other, I feel for her child. Those early months should be sacred: a precious (and limited) time spent feeding the bond between mom and baby.
Even those few weeks when Mayer will be at home, she'll be in an entirely different head space than the one her newborn requires. She might as well name her baby Silicone now.
While I'm all in favour of women balancing career and motherhood, it seems to me Mayer's scale has tipped long before her baby has even been born. Agree/disagree?
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