Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer became mum to identical twin girls on the morning of Thursday 10 December.
She announced the births via a tweet on Thursday, saying “‘Zack and I are excited to announce that our identical twin girls were born early this morning. Our whole family is doing great!”
The birth of her babies comes just a few days after fellow tech heavyweight Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan became first-time parents to daughter Max.
Earlier this year when Mayer announced her pregnancy, she expressed surprise that she and her investment banker husband Zack Bogue were expecting twins, because she had “no family history of twins or any other predisposing factors.”
Her decision to take just two weeks of maternity leave, like she did when her son was born three years ago, stands in contrast to Zuckerberg’s decision to set aside two months of paternity leave.
Mayer wrote in a blog post in September, “Since this is a unique time in Yahoo’s transformation, I plan to approach the pregnancy and delivery as I did with my son three years ago, taking limited time away and working throughout.”
The short duration of Mayer’s maternity leave has placed her at the centre of a debate about working mothers and their maternity leave entitlements. Critics say that her decision “sets an unhealthy precedent for women at the top.”
However, others say that Mayer “sends a message that not all women are the same, and that babies aren’t just the women’s responsibility.”
Mayer is one of only four per cent of women who run Fortune 1,000 companies — she earns £27m a year. When her first child was born, she had a nursery built in her office.
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Lead image: Twitter
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