• Labor's chickens have come home to roost earlier than they'd hoped. The budget is in crisis, the credit card limit has been increased multiple times and is nearly maxed out at 300 billion. It's ALWAYS the most vulnerable who suffer and Labor's propensity to spend like drunken sailors is the cause. This website is hysterical about the dangers women face under Tony Abbott but the fact is that women are far worse off now than they were under Howard. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/desparate-pms-war-has-failed-her-own-gender/story-fn7078da-1226537935706 - Gee
  • I would like to see these companies made accountable for their social responsibilities. Any company making those kinds of profits should be providing and maintaining the necessary infrastructure and social services required by their activities and if they do not then the government should be charging them the necessary royalties to cover the cost to taxpayers. All payments to governments should be disclosed and made transparent. Miners are too rich and have too much power. A breeding ground for corruption. - Rhoda
  • [...] responsibility and unpaid care work. Tara Moss has written an excellent piece over at The Hoopla, The Most Important Job In The World, that explores some of these nuances, including the societal and financial expectations that women [...] - Judging mothers | Australian Feminist Reader
  • We have had several children over a timespan which has seen support for mothers increased, so I agree with Not That Bad in that things are much better now than the were even when we had our first child 20 years ago, however, that doesn't mean that "things" are as they should be! I am slightly shattered that even after all of these years of struggle and work, that the role of men and women is not more equal, and that the gender difference is still so debated. All parents deserve society's support: single parents, fathers, mothers. We should be working towards a society where men and women feel supported whatever their choices, and this doesn't necessarily mean financially. Access to services, education, self-finance. We should all be being encouraged to fulfil our potential as human beings. We have the brains, we have the capacity (economics is, after all, a human invention---not a creature with a life of its own) to make the changes. Attitudes need to change. Colour, race, marital status, having children, not having children.... Children are precious and deserve out attention, and parents deserve society's support. If that is given, then we may get the society we deserve! - Dodieh
  • @Robyn. You're the one with the attitude. Over it! - metoo
  • Yah pronking & smiling - Jay
  • Tony Abbott thinks Superannuation is a confidence trick? So what would he think of the national savings that would have been if this had been allowed to remain Australian Law. At the 1937 federal election, the United Australia Party had promised to introduce a system of national insurance that would provide medical cover and pensions for working people. The scheme was to be funded by contributions from government, employers and employees. Menzies, who had helped draft the policy, was an enthusiastic supporter of the scheme. For him it constituted good social policy and, once adequate superannuation funds had been accumulated, promised to relieve taxpayers of what was likely to become an intolerable burden in the future. Unfortunately the United Australia Party’s coalition partners were not nearly so keen about the proposal. Although a National Insurance Bill was passed, Country Party ministers continued to resist its implementation, arguing that the money was needed elsewhere, particularly to provide for ‘adequate defence’. After a series of stormy meetings, Cabinet succumbed to Country Party threats and decided to repeal the pension provisions of the Bill. Menzies immediately resigned from the ministry. - johnward154
  • Never have and never will purposefully buy a celebrity endorsed product. Make my own choices according to years of experience. I don't watch or listen to commercial tv or radio or read mainstream media . Abc, Sbs plus community radio (bay fm 99.9) are my choice. Find very vacuous the current obsession with all things celebrity! - Robyn
  • Maybe hard to be honest ..... but I think probably most of us are little influenced by advertising especially with gorgeous hot men and sexy women, we would probably all look beautiful even though we get older ..... as Dolly Parton said in an interview, you have no idea how expensive it is to look so cheap.. ;-) - Tone May
  • I have honestly never purchased anything because of a celebrity endorsement. After all, they are being paid to promote the product even if they don't actually use it. If I want to make a decision about a product purchase, I do my research on consumer review sites on the web and then decide whether to purchase or not. - Aeron Winters
 
12
Categories:  Lifestyle, News and Opinion, Wellbeing

PREGNANT WOMAN GETS JOB. NEWS??

By Jacinta Tynan
July 20, 2012

There is never a right time to have a baby but what bad timing to be offered your dream job in the last trimester.

No wonder new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (left), six moths pregnant with her first baby, has arranged to take two whole weeks of maternity leave.

Blink and one of the world’s leading tech companies won’t miss her. That’s what she’s hoping anyway.

I hope we laugh one day about how this made headlines around the world: Pregnant Woman Gets Job.

Yahoo was praised for its progressiveness in taking such a bold leap. Mayer herself called it “evolved thinking” that her new bosses took her on in her state.

A step up from the days when pregnant women had to lie about it, sure, but evolved?

Pregnancy is a temporary condition and, despite outdated and disproven opinion, one that doesn’t impact one iota on a woman’s brain capacity or her ability to get to work on time.

It’s the baby that is here to stay and only when employers and governments start recognising that, facilitating mums to hang with their newborns until they are good and ready to come back to work, should they be applauded. For me that was nine months.

 

Jacinta with her two boys Jasper, two and a half, left, and Otis, one.  

With my first baby, I naively requested six months maternity leave, a hodge podge of paid leave, holiday leave, and cracking my fixed-term deposit, knowing I could adjust the time accordingly once I knew what I was in for.

What I was in for was a love affair that knocked me for six, so grateful that I didn’t have anywhere to be except at home with him.

I needed to be there to breast feed, settle, recover from my emergency caesar and get around in my PJs in a sleep-deprived, unwashed hair haze. But I also wanted to be there. Nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming biological pull to be anywhere else but there.

To lie in the backyard tracing his toes. To sit up most of the night, just the two of us, when he wouldn’t sleep for love nor money. So I stretched it out a little longer. With my second baby I put eight months on the form, then rounded up to nine.

I was lucky to be able to do that, to linger on my maternity leave and not have to think about the outside world for a bit.

How much time to take off work with a new baby is dressed up as personal choice but it so rarely is. For a huge majority of women it’s financial. Paid maternity leave is a new phenomenon in this country and even then it’s paltry: minimum wage for 18 weeks.

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12 Responses to this article

  1. Janine Fitzpatrick July 20, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I know it’s been applauded as a revolutionary step for a company to hire a pregnant woman, but in reality, given she’s only having a 2 week maternity leave, it’s not actually taking the pregnancy into account. It is ignoring it, pretending she is just like any other newly appointed exec – just having a little holiday. It just seems to me even with all the financial resources and support in the world having a baby is an emotional and physical act that brings a range of complexities into your life. It seems sad to me that even though hiding the pregnancy wasn’t necessary, continuing on as if the birth hasn’t occurred still seems to be essential.

     
    • Margaret July 20, 2012 Reply
       
       

      I am all for mothers going back to work and good on, any company who support them. But… 2 weeks maternity leave?
      Can any of us remember how we felt 2 weeks after delivering any of our children…I prefer not to revisit that period. The physical exhaustion and post op pain, and plain old lack of sleep was far beyond anything I imagined! Remember happily the warm fuzzy matenal rush and a new fresh baby like yesterday. That’s some suppoort team she has at home. Good luck to her. I wonder how it will all pan out?

       
  2. Lynne July 20, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Relieved I am not the only cynical female. Two weeks maternity leave seems to be for the organisation’s benefit most of all. “I really want this job and I am sorry about the inconvenience but would you mind if I took 10 working days off to have a baby? I’ll have my smart phone with me and we can face time from the labour ward”. While it could be seen as a postive for females I really doubt that was Yahoo’s motivation.

     
  3. Tracey July 20, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Marissa Mayer is in a different league – anything that comes out of her mouth over the coming year that includes Yahoo (ie the company she now RUNS) is going to be about impressing the markets; anything she says about herself (ie the woman who now RUNS Yahoo) is going to be about impressing the markets.

    At this, I’d imagine that she is a bit excited with herself and her fab achievement – and given how well she’s done so far, expect she’ll be able to figure out the next phase of her life – and if that includes taking her iPhone into the delivery room, outsourcing to a wet nurse or rounding up her personal community to help hold it together, I reckon she’ll do just fine!

     
  4. Annie Also July 20, 2012 Reply
     
     

    “There is never a right time to have a baby”….What the hell?
    It is not like having a dog, or a holiday or a drink or a….blah blah….
    Having a baby is what life is about.
    I wish this woman had not gotten pregnant if all she thinks about is ‘getting back to work’. Poor little bugga, her child….”Mummy loved me so much she went back to work”….

    I am disgusted.
    Time flies and by the time your child is15 you blink and your best job is over.
    Pathetic woman.

     
  5. RobynMarie July 21, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Annie Also you are a brave woman, but I agree. If you choose to have a baby and you can have a baby – wonderful! Will Marissa’s child know that she is her mum? I feel sad for both of them. But hey, she has ennough money to get the very best nanny. Either way, this story has been done to death, lets all move on.

     
  6. anonymous July 21, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I am just so happy that we live in a world where she has a choice!!
    This is nothing new! How naive to think that you just sit around at home feeding, gazing at and bonding with the baby. Most of us also do the jobs that could easily be outsourced (by women like this with no budget limits and no desire to be a housekeeper as well), like washing, cleaning and cooking. Hell, some of us even run family farms where you don’t ever get time off!!! The cattle still need to be fed and watered and worked- or they will die! Women with their own businesses will most definately take less than 2 weeks off, coz it might not be there if you walk away from it for 6 weeks!!!!!

    I believe that she will be able to have a full compliment of staff to attend to the care of herself and the baby. I’ll also bet that if she has to go to the offices that Yahoo has the very best in childcare facilities on the face of the planet- if they didn’t before I imagine they soon will be! This lady will probably have bubs brought to her at the whim of the baby’s needs for her to feed and a bit of cuddle time, then taken away( to possibly the next room for the nanny to attend to). I think this lady will have it all worked out! So many other women who own their own businesses or work from home have done the same for such a long time.

    Don’t forget there is probably a father on the scene who will do what do many other dads out there do and be involved! Possibly OMG a stay at home dad!!!!

    Good luck to them! They don’t yet know what they are in for but I’m sure they have everything at their disposal to make it work for the best interests of all, mother, father and baby.

     
  7. gogirl July 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    The best laid plans of mice and men … (or women, as the case may be)

    How much maternity leave you take, or even the reasons behind it, is your own business. It has no bearing on you being a bad mum, a good mum, or anything else.

    Just because you have a baby doesn’t mean you have to give up your hopes and aspirations – they can co-exist. It’s a little tougher and probably a little more chaotic, but it doesn’t mean there’s any less love. Working mothers are just as capable of turning out wonderful, well adjusted, emotionally sound offspring as non-working mothers.

    I only hope that as a first time mum, she has the support around her for when she gazes into her little one’s eyes and is derailed by her heart. It doesn’t always happen immediately, but generally, it will happen somewhere along the line – and it can be overwhelming, especially when you’re not expecting it.

    Good luck to Marissa Mayer and I hope everything pans out for her as she has it planned.

     

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  • Gee: Labor's chickens have come home to roost earlier than they'd hoped. The budget is in crisis, the credit card limit has b...

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