Matt Lauer drew the ire of working moms everywhere on Thursday’s Today show when he asked General Motors CEO Mary Barra if it was possible to do her job AND be a mom.
Mrs. Barra took the question in stride, but the line of questioning has a lot of moms scratching their heads, wondering why the host would even ask such a question instead of sticking to business.
After all, no one is asking Matt Lauer if he’s able to be a good dad on is tight schedule of being unlikable on TV.
But Matt is sticking to his guns. Shortly after the backlash reached him, he took to his Facebook page to address the criticism head-on! He wrote:
“As part of the interview, I referenced this Forbes article (here) where Barra talked about the challenge of balancing work life and home life…
In the article she said that she felt horrible when she missed her son’s junior prom. It’s an issue almost any parent including myself can relate to. If a man had publicly said something similar after accepting a high-level job, I would have asked him exactly the same thing.”
What Matt isn’t getting is that they probably shouldn’t have been asking those questions in the Forbes interview either!
Mary Barra being a mom really has nothing to do with why he’s interviewing her. Bringing it up, especially in such a condescending way, sets back the cause of women in the workplace!
With more recalls on the way, the question shouldn’t be, “Can a working mother be successful as the CEO of GM?” It should be, “Can ANYONE be successful as the CEO of GM??”
[Image via NBC.]
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