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| Marissa Mayer |
For the record I've 2 little children. I took three months maternity leave for each and it wasn’t even close to enough. I fight all day to equal work and children and many days feel I am failing. But that's my experience. It is personal to my life, my kids and my work ethic. I wouldn’t imagine telling anyone else how it's attending is for them or how they should conduct themselves.
Discussing the potential pitfalls of CEO moms and challenges facing every working mom is a very good thing. What I take effect with is the personal and judgmental tone of some of these open letters.
“Those giant mesh underpants they make you wear post-partum? They should NEVER come into contact with Oscar de la Renta. Nor should leaking breast milk ever have the opportunity to stain your favorite cashmere cardigan. Anna Wintour would not approve,” writes one Seattle mom in her open letter. (Does it sound like she is sneering….or is it just me?)
“You can’t outsource motherhood….listen to your colostrums,” penned my colleague Kristi Lu Stout. And on it goes. You've no thought what you're in for, they say over and over again.
C’mon. It is true Mayer is a first time Mom, but she isn’t from Mars. At 37 I am sure she has supporters and family who have mutual their newborn war stories. As a manager, she has heard first hand from her employees the pressing need to balance work and family. She spoke at length at a conference about trying to help a team member Katie make it to her son’s soccer games on time.
I am sure Mayer thought long and hard about taking on the dual role of mom and CEO. Does that mean she will succeed? No. She has not only attending be running a company; she has to turn it around. Simply if she believes she's a vision on how to bring Yahoo back to life, should she really NOT try because she is pregnant? Life is messy. It is hard to time things perfectly.
You want to sound off about working moms, great. But let’s broaden it out away from Mayer’s personal decision. Let’s talk about the fact that 61% of women with a child under three are in the labor force and yet many feel their companies don’t support them when it comes to family balance.
I got assigned this story, ended up being forced to put in a lengthy day, missed tucking my kids in bed and no one but me noticed or cared. Possibly, just possibly, if there are many women with young kids or babies at the top things will start to change. A girl is admitted to dream.
