Yahoo's recently appointed CEO Marissa Mayer gave birth to her first child, a baby boy, on Sunday night — "and so begins the most scrutinized maternity leave in business history," says Jonathan Anker at HLN. After working right up to childbirth, Mayer, 37, is sticking to her plan to take only a week or two of leave before returning to the office, and working from home until then. This has reignited a heated debate about motherhood, family leave, feminism, and the provocative question raised in The Atlantic by Anne-Marie Slaughter: Can women "have it all"? Is it fair to ask if Mayer's decision to skimp on maternity leave is right for her, her family, and women?
Two weeks of maternity leave is nuts: Congratulations to Mayer and her husband on the birth of their first child, but taking just a week or two to bond with her baby "just plain sucks," says Joanna Mazewski at Babble. "Sorry, but no salary or quest for equality is more important than being with your newborn child when they need their mother the most." Then there's the question of what she hopes to accomplish: Between spiking hormones and sleepless nights, "it took a few good weeks, if not months, to get my brain functioning back to normal" after birth.
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