Male Chauvinism in Silicon Valley

"I'm a dirty old man and you look attractive, Marissa."They were the words that greeted Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive, during her first annual shareholder meeting, when a man named George Polis took the microphone to ask about dividends.

Ignoring the statement, Ms Mayer deputed an executive to respond to Mr. Polis's query on dividends. The strategy has been consistent throughout her leadership of one of the world's most famous companies. She has often avoided questions about Silicon Valley's male-dominated culture. "I never play the gender card," she told a reporter in 2015. "The moment you play into that, it's an issue."

That changed this week when Ms Mayer made a rare complaint about "gender-charged" reporting in an interview with the Financial Times. "I've tried to be gender-blind and believe tech is a gender-neutral zone but do think there has been gender-charged reporting," she said.

She cited articles focused on appearance as one topic that plagues only female leaders. "I think all women are aware of that but I had hoped in 2015 and 2016 that I would see fewer articles like that. It's a shame.

She has also faced a stream of stories that would not have been written about a male chief executive, on subjects such as her childcare arrangements, themed holiday parties, dating history and home decor.

The gender issue was clear from her first day as Yahoo chief executive in 2012, when some argued that the fact she was several months pregnant meant she would not be up to the job. When she took just two weeks of maternity leave, she was criticised again — this time for setting a poor example to mothers, who ought to take their full maternity leave entitlement. Like many of the gender-charged debates surrounding her leadership, it was one she could never win.

Preconceptions made Ms Mayer's job at Yahoo difficult in more subtle ways, too. During her first few months, with the share price rising because of an increase in the value of the company's stake in Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce group, expectations rose so high that it would have been impossible for anyone to meet them.

Never mind that the company had churned through five chief executives in as many years; that revenues were falling as it lost ad sales, or that private equity types had been sniffing around in search of a bargain for some time. Never mind that Ms Mayer had never before run a company.

You could call this the "glass cliff" — when women are brought into leadership roles only when a situation has been deemed impossible by others.

Ms Mayer made mistakes. Many of her acquisitions turned out to be duds, for example. This was particularly the case with Tumblr, which has registered writedowns of more than $700m. Her vision for expanding Yahoo by focusing on mobile, social, video and native advertising was neither convincing nor something she was able to put into practice.

Yet she made brave calls, notably her decision last year to split off Yahoo's stake in Alibaba. The plan was scuttled because of tax concerns but kicked off the process that led to the sale of Yahoo.

Ultimately Yahoo's problems proved so deep that it would have been all but impossible for any chief executive, male or female, to return the company to its former glory. Ms Mayer has gamely made the most of it.