YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki: Women and Men Should Both Be Asked About Work-Family Balance Though she has spoken extensively about gender bias in the workplace, Wojcicki is hoping to dial back the rhetoric in certain venues.
By Geoff Weiss •
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Throughout her two-year tenure as the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki has frequently championed gender equality in the workplace. She penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed about paid maternity leave, supports initiatives to encourage women in STEM and frequently discusses how to strike a work-life balance given that she is raising five kids.
But after being asked about her children at several high-profile tech conferences in recent months (which led to ensuing controversy about whether a male executive would be asked similar questions), Wojcicki is clarifying her position.
"The fact that I'm a woman CEO and I have five children is unusual," she said at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Next Gen conference. "Other women want to understand, "Well, how did you do that?' and "How do you make life work?'"
Indeed, the ever-elusive work-life balance is one of the most important quests of any entrepreneurial journey. But, Wojcicki says, there's a time and a place. "When I'm at a business conference talking about business and all of my peers are talking only about business, I think it's important that we're treated in the same way."
Related: This One Video Convinced Google to Buy YouTube in 2006
"I've tried to be very open because I want to share my experiences with other women," Wojcicki explains. "But I want to just make sure that it's a forum where we've agreed that's what we're going to talk about beforehand."
The fact that women are asked this question more than men, Wojcicki says, implies that they are expected to be homemakers. Check out more of her thoughts on the matter in the video below:
Related: With 4 Kids and Counting, YouTube CEO Explains How Motherhood Heightened Her Productivity
