Our Own Worst Enemy

The alternative rock band Lit wrote and performs a song called “My Own Worst Enemy.” There are times when I feel that women in the workplace sing this song’s refrain over and over again. We don’t have to look any farther than YouTube to find the most recent example of this—with Melissa Mayer, newly appointed CEO of Yahoo, playing the fall guy.

Mayer’s new position is big news in and of itself—another woman enters the ranks of Fortune 500 CEO’s! Unfortunately, the fact that she is pregnant with her first child seems to have eclipsed the more important, “another female CEO” news.

The Wall Street Journal convened a “panel” of two women who work at the publication to get their views—this is where the YouTube video comes in. Rather than applauding the fact that Mayer was hired despite the fact that she was pregnant, the women offered only skepticism about whether she could do the job while being a first-time mom. They used personal experience (“We couldn’t have done it so why should we expect her to be able to?”) to make their case. What they didn’t tell us was whether or not Mayer has an involved husband—I’m sure she does—or involved parents, or a great nanny lined up. With a compensation package valued in the high 8 figures, she can certainly afford to arrange for the best care for her child.

By focusing on another woman’s personal issues—that don’t affect us—rather than something more important such as her performance, we are doing all women a disservice. And if we question a woman’s ability to do the job based on factors that have nothing to do with qualifications, what message are we sending to the guys?

By Erin Wolf