Marissa Ann Mayer is a brilliant young woman. She has a bachelor’s
in Symbolic Systems and a masters in Computer Science from Stanford. She was
hired at 24 as the twentieth person and first female engineer at Google. She
worked her way up to Vice President.
Yahoo’s Board of Directors announced on Monday that she was
hired effective Tuesday as President and CEO of Yahoo.
What a great announcement. Marissa broke the glass ceiling
in Silicon Valley.
Then, she announced later on Monday that she was 7 months
pregnant with a baby son. That too should be a joyous occasion. However, she
set off a firestorm.
America should be celebrating one of the last steps of woman
liberation – a pregnant woman becoming CEO of a major corporation. We’re still
waiting for a woman President or Vice President.
The question was derisively asked – Can a woman run a
company and raise a child at the same time?
We are told that the demands of her newborn will command her
time; the lack of sleep will preclude her functioning in her professional
activity. Maternal guilt will possess her on the job. The mommy track will
derail her career.
A woman is free to choose – to marry or remain single, to
have children of her own, to adopt children, or to be childless, to be straight
or come out of the closet. She is free to stay at home or to work full time, to
work part time, or to volunteer.
A woman can become an airline pilot, biochemist, CPA,
doctor, electrician, engineer, minister or rabbi, lawyer, politician, plumber, professor,
trucker, producer or director, and even serve as a tour guide on The Jungle
Cruise at Disneyland.
She may also choose to stay at home as a housewife.
Those are her decisions.
We are no longer in the 40”s and 50”s. Society is no longer
free in this country to tell a woman that her role is to stay at home, making
babies and changing diapers.
Many mothers, including professionals, return to work
immediately. They may do it with the help of Mister Mom, an au pair, an aunt, or grandparents.
Imagine that, a woman wants to have it all – family and job.
A major part of America’s greatness today is the ability of
women to achieve their potential.
They are equal.
It’s her choice.
Her problem is not motherhood, but Yahoo. Maternity should
be easy compared to turning around Yahoo. That will be the biggest challenge of
her life to date.
Yahoo is a troubled company. It is a search engine and a web
directory, but master of neither. It was there before Google, but Google has
been eating its lunch. Marissa will be the fifth CEO in five years at Yahoo.
Microsoft offered $44.6 billion, $31/share, for Yahoo in February 2008. Jerry Yang, the founding chairman of Yahoo, turned it down in May. That was a big mistake for Yahoo’s shareholders. It’s half that value today.
Microsoft offered $44.6 billion, $31/share, for Yahoo in February 2008. Jerry Yang, the founding chairman of Yahoo, turned it down in May. That was a big mistake for Yahoo’s shareholders. It’s half that value today.
Yahoo’ s Board will decide in time if she is up to the job.
If not, it’s won’t be because she’s a woman, a pregnant woman, or a young
mother.
If she fails, it’s
because Yahoo is an corporate train wreck.
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