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Subscribe to RSSMarissa Mayer made news this week when the longtime Google executive said she was taking the top spot at struggling Internet firm Yahoo, was pregnant and planned to work through her very short maternity leave.
Mayer told Fortune that Yahoo’s board of directors “showed their evolved thinking” by awarding her the top job even though she is pregnant.
But many Life Inc. readers questioned how evolved her thinking was when she then added that she’d only be taking a few weeks of maternity leave and would work throughout it.
“What this does is raise the bar for every female CEO. Maternity leave was a hard-fought battle for women in the workplace. Now every other woman in (a) high position may be held to the same standard. Bad move for women, in my opinion,” one reader wrote.
Many readers also said that while Mayer may think that now, she has no idea what it will actually be like once the baby comes.
“It's possible, I guess, but she's going to be in for a big, big shock if she thinks she can pull off work and life duties like those at the same time!” one reader wrote.
Still, others argued that if you’re the CEO and bringing home millions of dollars, chances are you can afford to have a nanny to help with the baby, a housekeeper to do those endless piles of laundry and a cook to make sure you eat something.
And some defended her choice, saying that a woman should have a right to choose how to spend their early days with their baby.
“I think this is great news! I worked through my pregnancy and soon after my son's birth. I love what I do so incorporating baby felt like a natural extension,” one reader wrote.
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another commenter in another thread about this made a really good point. if she is coming on to help slice up the company and sell it off, this timing couldnt be better. she can disappear into obscurity with her kid and a sackful of cash, and no one will hold it against her that an unexperienced person didnt succeed where 5 already failed. it will be the end of her career as a CEO, but exactly how many millions does one need before its time to cash in?
completely speculative, and for yahoos sake and all the people working there lets hope im wrong and she is the second coming.
I can't believe that anyone is still talking about this woman being pregnant. She has one of the best minds in the industry and is the primary reason that Google is still around. Can we please discuss her mind and not her uterus for a while.
And for what it is worth I'm surprised that a company as progressive as Yahoo would allow her to work through her maternity leave. Change has to happen from the top down or it dies slowly.
Ms Mayer has enough money to hire help and avoid seeing her child for years. Why didn't she just hire an egg donor and a surrogate mother and avoid the pregnancy and maternal leave issues entirely?
Maybe she'll help dispel the old stereotype that pregnant women and new mothers are "slackers" or "unreliable" and are always taking time off from work, unlike single people.
Where is OWS and the libs outrage of the high salary this 1% is earning. MSNBC is celebrating her success.
If this was a white male, oh the outrage of liberal posters.
No time like the present to start training the next generation of CEO's....directly from the womb to the boardroom.