Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer faced strong criticism after announcing she was pregnant with identical twin girls. In her Sept. 1 statement on Yahoo’s Tumblr, she stated she would be “taking limited time away and working throughout,” as she did with her son three years ago.
Mayer faced similar criticism when she took over Yahoo. She was five months pregnant and built a nursery next to her office, according to Huffington Post. Mayer understood then, as she does now, that only 5 percent of CEOs are female, largely because a career disruption like pregnancy can cause them to make up to 30 percent less than their male counterparts, according to Fortune.
So why are we not praising her for being a model for women who want to make it to the top of the business world and have families?
Feminism has made marriage and family the enemy of success for women. Motherhood is a gift only women can receive, and it is their natural role.
Women are told after an unplanned pregnancy that their lives, or at least their careers, are over. If they decide to get an abortion, it is supposed to be empowering to women.
Young women are told that starting a serious relationship in college will distract them from school. If they decide to have multiple sex partners and “just have fun,” it is supposed to empower them.
Why is being a woman, supporting a good man and raising good children not empowering? Why is doing the first jobs we were created to do not empowering?
A married woman’s top priority should be her marriage. A study by Stanford University in 2014 showed divorce can have a “detrimental effect” on a CEO’s work, affecting their energy, concentration, productivity and their approach to risk.
Putting a marriage on the backburner for the sake of getting ahead at work reminds me of the opening scene of Disney and Pixar’s “Cars.” Lightning McQueen refuses to take help from his pit crew because passing on tires saved time short term. Eventually, neglected tires blow, and eventually, a neglected marriage will blow and hurt the career you’ve worked so hard for.
Spouses need to be partners tackling the challenges of work and parenthood together and enjoying every aspect of their lives together, including raising children.
While a man is completely capable of taking care of a baby, and no doubt adores his children, women have a way of nurturing that is individual to them. Physically, a woman’s body was designed for having children and providing for them in their first few years of life, which builds a special bond from the beginning. Research supports that when women interact with their children, like feeding and holding them, oxytocin is released and strengthens their bond, according to Parenting.com.
This maternal bond boosts immunity, prevents diseases and improves IQ in children. There is evidence a woman and her baby can identify each other simply by smell. When MRIs were taken of women while they watched their baby make faces, the parts of her brain associated with rewards was activated. Women naturally want to take care of their babies. They are physically and emotionally created to do it well and feel good about it.
There is nothing better for a woman to do than raise children well. I am surrounded by women who decided at some point their job, as mom was infinitely more important than being nurses, lawyers and businesswomen.
For Mayer, a woman who wants to remain in charge of overhauling Yahoo, building a nursery next to her office means she can be mom and CEO. She’s still with her baby, and she’s not losing momentum in her career. She’s doing it all.
I understand not all women want to be wives and mothers, and that’s OK. It’s up to women who want success in both to find ways in their career fields to be a hands-on wife and mother and still make it to the top. It’s time women start paving their own way as manager and mom, whether that’s through quitting work, building an office nursery, working from home or something else.
Caitlyn Atkinson is an 18-year-old mass communication sophomore from Pride, Louisiana. You can reach her on Twitter @catkin105.