Paid Maternity Leave for Female Leaders
Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer with her twin sons.
BY SOPHIE BAKSHI
When Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo!, chose to only take 2 weeks of maternity leave after giving birth to twins, the business world was launched into an intense debate. Despite being able to take up to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, Mayer took just a fraction of that time. Many argue that her decision reflects poorly on mothers who choose to take a long maternity leave, while others praise her for her commitment to the company. Mayer isn’t the only female leader who’s faced the difficult decision between maintaining a work-family balance and preventing the inevitable criticism that female leaders face for taking time off. This decision, one that many female leaders are forced to make, highlights an overarching issue in the business world: maternity leave for female leaders is not normalized. The fact that this topic is still up for debate in the 21st century is a symptom of the deeply-rooted gender biases and inequalities in the world of business.
The lack of normalized maternity leave and stigmas around this topic are largely to blame for the stark gender divides in leadership positions. In 2019, 35% of companies had at most one woman in a C-level executive position.
Lack of representation can be seen at all levels of business, not just in executive positions. However, for women in executive positions, the pressure to perform is significantly higher, compounded by an extreme lack of representation at these levels. Maternity leave is often used in arguments against offering women leadership positions so as to avoid business disruption. However, female leaders’ decisions regarding maternity leave serve as an important example for other female workers and often influence their own decisions regarding the length of their maternity leave. Anne Weisberg, senior vice president of the Families and Work Institute in New York says that the decisions of corporate leaders, particularly female ones, regarding family leave are “hugely symbolic'' for their company’s employees. Despite this important symbolism, taking long maternity leave is not normalized among women. This taboo quality of maternity leave is described by María del Mar Martínez, senior partner and global chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at McKinsey & Company, when she said that “there is a ‘lack of taking leave’ culture” in many companies.
Women generally take longer family leaves than men (an average of 29 weeks in comparison to 16 weeks). As a result, an argument is made that women are “less committed” to their jobs, thus increasing the stigma against women in leadership positions. This stigma is present in everyday discourse, ranging from microaggressions to gender stereotypes. It is also present through more direct, sexist comments made by many influential people. For example, during an interview with Fox News, Gavin McInnes, the founder of Vice Media, said “Women would rather go to their daughter’s piano recital than stay all night at work working on a proposal because they’re less ambitious.” McInnes uses a “daughter’s piano recital” as an example of the activities that are tagged as “maternal responsibilities” and are typically viewed as unimportant or “less than.” In other words, McInnes is arguing that women’s desire to engage in unimportant activities instead of putting in extra work to advance in their careers is the root of the gender divide in leadership positions. Many people who oppose female leadership use the same argument as McInnes, but in regards to maternity leave. They say that maternity leave causes the lack of female representation in leadership when in reality, social stigmas and personal biases – things that women can’t even control – are solely to blame.