--- description: Toward the end of this week's much-heralded PBS Makers documentary, a retrospective of influential and trailblazing doyennes who are the past and future of the... title: How Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Is Building a Nursery By Her Office, and Dissing Working Moms image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70bf11156644f280/698a92dd9d83e83d00ba025b/162203743.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Viewpoint: How Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Is Building a Nursery By Her Office, and Dissing Working Moms by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Feb 28, 2013 10:45 AM CUT  TODAY -- Pictured: Marissa Mayer appears on NBC News' "Today" show -- (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images) TODAY -- Pictured: Marissa Mayer appears on NBC News' "Today" show -- (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images—2013 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Feb 28, 2013 10:45 AM CUT Toward the end of this week’s much-heralded PBS [_Makers_](http://www.makers.com/documentary/ "undefined") documentary, a retrospective of influential and trailblazing doyennes who are the past and future of the women’s movement, Yahoo CEO [Marissa Mayer](http://topics.time.com/marissa-mayer/ "undefined") comes on to decry feminism. The timing was far from ideal, considering that days earlier she issued a much-criticized edict requiring Yahoo employees to close up their home offices and report to work in an office come June. “When Marissa Mayer directed all employees never to work from home, I understood why she said she isn’t a feminist,” activist [Gloria Steinem](http://topics.time.com/gloria-steinem/ "undefined") wrote in an email. “Maybe she really isn’t!” Steinem, prominent in _Makers_, elaborated Tuesday night on PBS Newshour, noting that “not everybody in this film is a heroine either.” The [clip](http://www.makers.com/marissa-mayer/moments/distance-feminism "undefined") in question dates back a year, when Mayer was a key Googler and before she assumed the reins at Yahoo. But the message was clear: --- > “” --- In a Salon retort headlined, “[Free Your Workers](http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/free%5Fyour%5Fworkers%5Fyahoo/ "undefined"),” Irin Carmon argues it’s a mistake to flippantly dismiss the existence of gender discrimination in the workplace as “negative energy.” --- > “” --- (**MORE**: [Marissa Mayer: Is the Yahoo! CEO’s Pregnancy Good for Working Moms?](http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/17/marissa-mayer-is-the-yahoo-ceos-pregnancy-good-for-working-moms/ "undefined")) It’s amazing how quickly Mayer’s image has tarnished. Last year, she was Yahoo’s golden girl, a pregnant woman cheered on by legions of working moms as she took the helm of the struggling tech titan. Now, she’s the tough-as-nails, whip-cracking, anti-family crusader. The transformation wasn’t entirely unexpected, however. Mayer famously announced that she intended to take a brief maternity leave, prompting patronizing virtual pats on the back. “There, there,” we wizened mothers told her. “Having a baby will rock your world. There’s no way you’ll be back as soon as you think.” But there she was at her desk, two weeks post-partum. Alas, with her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it maternity leave and her new policy banning working from home, it feels like Mayer is throwing darts at working parents everywhere. Her stand is even more egregious considering she’s apparently built herself a set-up most moms can only dream of: a nursery — paid for out of her own pocket — adjacent to her company office. “I wonder what would happen if my wife brought our kids and nanny to work and set ’em up in the cube next door?” wondered a husband on [AllThingsD](http://allthingsd.com/20130225/survey-says-despite-yahoo-ban-most-tech-companies-support-work-from-home-for-employees/#sthash.fgAHt8Qn.dpuf "undefined"). His wife, a Yahoo employee, will soon have to stop working from home. Some, like Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, cautioned from the start against making Mayer into a champion of working mothers everywhere. “I hope they don’t set her up and watch her every move,” Galinsky [told me](http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/17/marissa-mayer-is-the-yahoo-ceos-pregnancy-good-for-working-moms/#ixzz2M7tEVkG1 "undefined") in July when Mayer became CEO. “If we’re normalizing this, whatever happens to her — if she does well, if she doesn’t do well — it shouldn’t mean that other women who are pregnant shouldn’t be hired for senior [jobs](http://topics.time.com/jobs/ "undefined"). She should not have to become the symbol of her generation.” Yet it was impossible not to pin high hopes on the new mom sitting at the helm of a major tech company. As a mom of a newborn, surely she’d see the value in allowing women — and men — to work in such a way that they don’t feel they’re cutting corners. Work-at-home parents aren’t asking to do less; they’re just asking to get the job done in a way that helps them balance work and family. (**MORE**: [The Motherhood Penalty: We’re in the Midst of a ‘Mom-Cession’](http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/17/the-motherhood-penalty-were-in-the-midst-of-a-mom-cession/ "undefined")) As it is, working mothers with identical resumes to men are 79% less likely to be hired and 100% less likely to be promoted than working dads, according to research in the _American Sociological Review_. It’s part of what’s known as the “motherhood penalty,” says Brian Serafini, a doctoral student who found that married mothers take longer to find new jobs and earn less than married fathers once they do. Why not let those who manage to overcome those obstacles work where they want to? Certainly there’s value in face time, but [studies](http://business.time.com/2013/02/26/memo-read-round-the-world-yahoo-says-no-to-working-at-home/?hpt=hp%5Fc1 "undefined") have shown that flexible schedules boost efficiency, retention and morale. Lest this sound solely like a defense of my own work-from-home set-up, take it from Brad Harrington, who heads Boston College’s Center for Work and Family. He’s found that committed parents are often synonymous with committed employees. --- > “” --- Of course, all that energy tends to fizzle from time to time. New research in the _Journal of Vocational Behavior_ finds that women are more likely than men to report that work interferes with everything from taking care of their health to maintaining relationships with friends and partners. With Mayer’s decision to keep her own kid close while decreeing the opposite for her employees, it might be worth considering what else her ban on working from home interferes with — morale. **MORE**: [About that Atlantic Article, Why Working from Home Isn’t the Answer for Working Moms](http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/06/about-that-atlantic-article-why-working-from-home-isnt-the-answer-for-working-moms/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7136593/how-yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-is-building-a-nursery-by-her-office-and-dissing-working-moms/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7136593/how-yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-is-building-a-nursery-by-her-office-and-dissing-working-moms/"},"headline":"Viewpoint: How Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Is Building a Nursery By Her Office, and Dissing Working Moms","datePublished":"2013-02-28T10:45:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:05:54.968Z","description":"Toward the end of this week's much-heralded PBS Makers documentary, a retrospective of influential and trailblazing doyennes who are the past and future of the...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7136593/how-yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-is-building-a-nursery-by-her-office-and-dissing-working-moms/","keywords":["Children","pbs","yahoo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70bf11156644f280/698a92dd9d83e83d00ba025b/162203743.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70bf11156644f280/698a92dd9d83e83d00ba025b/162203743.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Today - Season 62","caption":"Today - Season 62","creditText":"NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images—2013 NBCUniversal Media, LLC.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7136593/how-yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-is-building-a-nursery-by-her-office-and-dissing-working-moms/","name":"Viewpoint: How Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Is Building a Nursery By Her Office, and Dissing Working Moms"}}]}] ```