If Marissa Mayer Was a Man, We Wouldn't Be Talking About This

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When Yahoo! (YHOO) first made the bold and incredibly smart move of hiring Marissa Mayer as CEO, I wrote Dear Yahoo! CEO: Don't Mind Wall Street, It's Full of Chauvinist Pigs.

Sadly, eight months, a no-drama she didn't miss a beat childbirth and a 36% pop later (that's how much YHOO is up since July 17, 2012), I have to write a sequel.

The media members who ran with pitchforks and fire to hammer Mayer out of the gate ought to be ashamed of themselves. They opened doors to a bandwagon that painted the story in Bushian black and white, minus any necessary context.

For the proper context and details about the policy not available elsewhere, see Why Marissa Mayer Banned Work-From-Home at Yahoo!.

So, yes, most people label Mayer's decision to stop all Yahoo! employees from working at home as totally out-of-touch. One anonymous Yahoo!er told Kara Swisher of All Things D:

When a working mother is standing behind this, you know we are a long way from a culture that will honor the thankless sacrifices that women too often make.

Such a selfless feminist there, eh?

Thankless sacrifices ... Is she serious?

You work for a Silicon Valley tech company and you're yelping about "thankless sacrifices" in response to the news that you'll have to put more miles on your Audi or take Cal-Train into work?

Come to Los Angeles. Visit the school where my wife works in a poor suburb. Then talk to me about the "thankless sacrifices that women too often make."

Seems to me that Mayer -- strong woman that she is -- is nipping as many cases of self-entitlement amidst poor performance in the bud as she can. Don't be fooled. This move will not last, at least not to the hard and fast, no exceptions extent it's at now. If you're an A-player, you have been taken care of, as my sleuthing (see link to earlier story above) uncovered.

Bottom line: Marissa Mayer is the one getting the shaft here because she's a woman. If she were a man, guess what, the outrage would, at the very least, be muted. Imagine a Steve Jobs or Tim Cook getting the nod as Yahoo! CEO and instituting this policy.

We would have been told that they were being "tough" and "doing what needs to be done." You know -- they came, they saw, they conquered and they "reeled things in." But, no, it's Marissa Mayer -- the woman we love to build up and hate all at the same time -- so we brand her hypocritical because she reportedly built -- and paid for out of her own pocket -- a nursery next to her office.

1 2 Next › Last »