powerful. pregnant. yahoo!

marissa mayer, the half-finnish daughter of
an art teacher & an engineer from wausau, wisconsin,
is now arguably america’s most powerful pregnant woman.

monday, 37yo mayer was named the new president & ceo of web giant yahoo!
tuesday, she revealed she’s pregnant with her first child, a baby boy, due in october.

prior to joining yahoo!,
she was employee #20 at google, & the company’s first girl engineer.
since 2010, mayer has been serving as vice president
of google’s local, locations & map services.
previously, she managed the company’s search team for over ten years.

huge kudos to mayer, who may be the
first-ever pregnant ceo of a fortune 500 tech company.
& huge kudos to yahoo! execs, who apparently were informed of her pregnancy
& didn’t let the term “delicate condition” be included in their decision-making.

mayer says she intends to work through only a handful of weeks of
maternity leave from home before returning to the workplace.

hmmm.

the reality is, mayer definitely has the resources
to actually follow through with her plan.
she has access to excellent childcare,
a schedule she sets herself,
a spouse with similar flexibility,
& tons of money.

but she still has literally a world of expectation on her professionally,
all the personal expectations – real, perceived & self-induced –
that naturally accompany motherhood,
a body full of chemical, hormonal & other physiological change,
& a little creature of love she’s going to want to be with all. the. time.

& how mayer deals with all that,
incidentally,
will send a socially significant message
about women & work & equality & america
& feminism & motherhood & life|work balance.

no pressure, marissa.

here’s hoping smart, hard-working, powerful, pregnant you
finds a way to build a better workplace for women;
finds a way to create a for-real family-friendly work culture,
with understanding & support, rather than judging & resentment;
finds a way to convince folks that pregnancy & parenthood
don’t diminish a woman’s worth in the workplace;
finds a way to help moms who don’t have the expansive resources you enjoy.

& here’s hoping new-mommy you
finds a way to spend as much time as
humanly possible sniffing the head
of that little creature of love.

because believe you me, yummybabyscalpscent is fleeting.


image source: latimes.com.