Powerful Women & Pregnancy

Seven months pregnant and the opportunity to show the world on a national magazine cover your soon to be baby girl or boy. I would think that many women would jump at this chance to bask in the limelight and show off their baby to the world. Yet Marissa Mayer, the newly appointed CEO of Yahoo decided not to pose on the cover of Fortune magazine which was highlighting her as one of the 50 most powerful women. In the book Great Divergence, it references as to how women’s roles have changed in the workplace and I couldn’t agree more. Although women have certainly advanced and taken on positions that they couldn’t have even dreamed of holding years ago (like Marissa Mayer) there are still significant limitations that continue to face.

When Marissa Mayer was asked to pose on the cover of Fortune magazine she actually declined to pose while seven months pregnant and instead sent them a picture of herself when she was not pregnant. Now I ask, what does this show other working mothers that a female CEO chooses not to show her pregnancy while being acknowledged as a powerful woman? Would Marissa’s baby bump have made her look less powerful? I certainly don’t think so. 

Interested in learning a little more, here's a video highlighting this recent story