Marissa Mayer is the newly appointed CEO of Yahoo, a Fortune 500 company. Not only is she 1 of only 20 female CEO’s among the Fortune 500 companies (4%!), but she is assumed to be the first to be hired during a pregnancy. Mayer has explained that Yahoo Execs knew of her pregnancy before hand, but they “showed their evolved thinking” in hiring her anyways. Wow, I find this to be great news for women and a wonderful statement from Yahoo.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a friend years ago. When I was searching for a new job she recommended I not wear my wedding rings to interviews. ”Because at your age they might assume you are pregnant, will request time off right away and they’ll ultimately factor that into their decision.” Yikes, really? I figured not wearing my rings to the interview was for the best.
In more recent times, I’ve had the luxury to not worry so much about this. And really, if a company doesn’t want to hire me because they assume I’m pregnant, I don’t want to work there anyways. So, I wear my rings to job interviews. But now that Marissa Mayer and Yahoo have made a statement that pregnancy didn’t factor into their decision, I’ll be proud to wear my rings the next time around.
Marissa Mayer and Yahoo, you are my heros!
