Marissa Mayer rewrites rules for CEO parenting, again

Marissa Mayer will write another chapter in her playbook for parenting in the C-suite, and possibly beyond, when she gives birth to identical twins in December.

Yahoo Inc's chief executive officer announced her pregnancy in a blog post and said she doesn't expect the girls' arrival to slow her down. "I plan to approach the pregnancy and delivery as I did with my son three years ago," she wrote, saying she'll be "working throughout".

Mayer, 40, isn't the first female CEO with young children, but she blazed a trail in the US in 2012 by giving birth while holding the top job. And her very public determination to not let motherhood get in the way of running a company could be encouraging to would-be corporate executives.

"She's setting a new path for younger, smart women coming up behind her," said Carol Hochman, a former CEO of Danskin and chairman of Women in America. Of course Mayer has the means "to figure out how to make this work". Her compensation was $59.1 million last year.

Still, others may find inspiration in her treating parenthood as most male executives do. She's showing it can be "more routine that women have children" and careers at the same time, said Alison Davis-Blake, dean of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

The downside is that Mayer will set another kind of example by not availing herself of Yahoo's 16 weeks of paid maternity leave. "That gives a clear message to her employees that only work matters," said Elaine Eisenman, dean of executive education at Babson College.

Seeking solutions
After Mayer's son was born, she built a private nursery next to her office. And while Mayer will be able to bring her twins to work, she famously reduced a family-friendly option when she put limits on work-at-home arrangements the year after she became CEO.

If people interpret that as "work comes before being a mom, that's a horrible message," Eisenman said.

In a statement, Yahoo said it's "supportive of her plans and approach". Anne Espiritu, a spokeswoman for the Sunnyvale, California-based company, declined to comment further.

For all that, Mayer is a harbinger of the generation to come because of the way she's arranging her life to accommodate career and family, said Davis-Blake. "When you look at the millennials, they are seeking a solution that works for them, not a one-size-fits-all maternity policy."

Such policies vary widely in the US, the only nation in the developed world that doesn't mandate maternity leave with pay. Last month, Netflix Inc began letting new mothers and fathers take as much as one year of paid time off in what's probably the most generous parental leave policy in the country.