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| Marissa Mayer - CEO of Yahoo |
So, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo! has publicly announced that she will take
two weeks off work after her twins are born.
The internet is afire with posts, tweets, and blogs about how she is
undermining maternity leave for other women.
I say “Bullpucky!!” Maternity
leave is a choice and a privilege. You
go girl!!
Rachel Miller Sobel from the “Whine and Cheese(its)” claims
that Mayer is passive-aggressively giving little head-taps to other women in
her organization by providing maternity benefits to them but not accepting the
time off for herself. Quoting Miller, it’s
like Mayer is saying “No, no Sally in accounting…you take all the time you
need. You be with your baby. I’m just gonna pop mine out, put on some lip gloss
and head into the office…like a boss. But you?? No, no…you don’t have to.”
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| http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server3900/376d0/product _images/uploaded_images/closing-up.jpg?t=1413439534 |
Caroline Fairchild, the Economy Editor at LinkedIn , says
that Mayer should not have publicly announced her plans because it sets a new
unrealistic standard for women to aspire if they want to be successful C-suite
members. Fairchild claims that Mayer is
normalizing 2-week maternity leaves by being so passive about it. After all, if a 40 year old busy CEO of Yahoo! only needs 2 weeks off to have twins, what’s wrong with the rest of the women? Why do they need longer?
Oh my gosh! How trite
this seems. Let’s break this down to
reality.
Marissa Mayer is not like the majority of women. I know, some people want to play the leveling
game – bring her down to our level so we are as great as her! But she’s NOT like most of us. She is a very successful woman. Let’s translate that into what many people
consider success – she’s damn rich! Do
you really think she is going to be staying at home, changing poopy diapers, walking
the floors all night? Doubtful… she can
afford nannies and caretakers for this. She
has the luxury of recovering from the births much quicker than if she had to be
up every three hours in the night, and spend all day feeding, washing clothes, and chasing after her other toddler. So,
once she’s recovered, why not go back to work?
Let’s compare this to mothers who do not get even two weeks
off for maternity leave.
Gasp!
I know. I know.
You assumed that everyone had that “right”.
Then there’s me. I
was a full time student getting my first degree and was working part time in a
nightclub when I had my baby. My little
9 lb baby girl was born during my Christmas break from school. She was 4 days old when I went back to University full time. As for work, I was fortunate
to be able to take 3 weekends off so she was almost a month old when I went
back to work.
No, I’m not trying to claim martyrdom. I’m saying that I was a mother who did what I
had to do to feed and care for my baby.
Maternity leave is not a right – it is a privilege and a
choice. If women are entitled to it and
don’t want to take it, then let them go back to work. So, to Marissa Mayer I say – do whatever
works for you and your family.
And
congratulations on the upcoming birth of your babies, the event that seems to
be ignored in all this hullabaloo!
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| http://www.combaillaux.fr/infos/aiol/aiol_149_09_12.pdf |
