Tyga and Chris Brown Talk Fly Women and Fly Cars on 'Ayo'

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It’s been two years since Chris Brown and Tyga dropped their joint mixtape, ‘Fan of a Fan,’ and it won’t be too much longer until they release the follow-up ‘Ayo,’ due out in 2015. So until then, the pair decided to whet a few appetites with the first single of the same name.

Produced by Nic Nac, the cut actually has a true summertime feel, despite being dropped in December, as it evokes thoughts of warm sunshine, blue skies and good times.

Breezy starts the song off with a hook, followed by a verse from Tyga, who talks about money, cars and his many sexual escapades.

“Aye babe, this my new s— / I’m the black Richie Rich with the roof missing / If it don’t make dollars, don’t make sense / Z, wake up like I gotta get it / And I got a engine for a trunk space / I get money three ways, f—in’ bitches three ways / Seven different foreigns plus she no hable, but I make that bitch walk with some cheesecake,” spits the Young Money rapper.

From there, Brown takes over and sings about his flashy lifestyle and his brief stint in rehab. “A n—- ain’t worried about nothing, rehabilitation just had me worried about f—in’ / Money, decision-making only worried about cuffing / I wanna see her body, she said get inside of me / I want to feel you baby, just bring the animal right out of me,” he sings.

Towards the end of the track, both artists go back and forth, which adds a bit of old-school flavor. Check out the effort below and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Listen to Chris Brown & Tyga’s ‘Ayo’

See 10 Best Album Covers of 2014

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Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?

Mondadori Portfolio, via Getty ImagesAt the Solvay Conference on Physics in 1927, the only woman in attendance was Marie Curie (bottom row, third from left).

Last summer, researchers at Yale published a study proving that physicists, chemists and biologists are likely to view a young male scientist more favorably than a woman with the same qualifications. Presented with identical summaries of the accomplishments of two imaginary applicants, professors at six major research institutions were significantly more willing to offer the man a job. If they did hire the woman, they set her salary, on average, nearly $4,000 lower than the man’s. Surprisingly, female scientists were as biased as their male counterparts.

Meg Urry, professor of physics and astronomy at Yale.

The new study goes a long way toward providing hard evidence of a continuing bias against women in the sciences. Only one-fifth of physics Ph.D.’s in this country are awarded to women, and only about half of those women are American; of all the physics professors in the United States, only 14 percent are women. The numbers of black and Hispanic scientists are even lower; in a typical year, 13 African-Americans and 20 Latinos of either sex receive Ph.D.’s in physics. The reasons for those shortages are hardly mysterious — many minority students attend secondary schools that leave them too far behind to catch up in science, and the effects of prejudice at every stage of their education are well documented. But what could still be keeping women out of the STEM fields (“STEM” being the current shorthand for “science, technology, engineering and mathematics”), which offer so much in the way of job prospects, prestige, intellectual stimulation and income?

As one of the first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics from Yale — I graduated in 1978 — this question concerns me deeply. I attended a rural public school whose few accelerated courses in physics and calculus I wasn’t allowed to take because, as my principal put it, “girls never go on in science and math.” Angry and bored, I began reading about space and time and teaching myself calculus from a book. When I arrived at Yale, I was woefully unprepared. The boys in my introductory physics class, who had taken far more rigorous math and science classes in high school, yawned as our professor sped through the material, while I grew panicked at how little I understood. The only woman in the room, I debated whether to raise my hand and expose myself to ridicule, thereby losing track of the lecture and falling further behind.

In the end, I graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with honors in the major, having excelled in the department’s three-term sequence in quantum mechanics and a graduate course in gravitational physics, all while teaching myself to program Yale’s mainframe computer. But I didn’t go into physics as a career. At the end of four years, I was exhausted by all the lonely hours I spent catching up to my classmates, hiding my insecurities, struggling to do my problem sets while the boys worked in teams to finish theirs. I was tired of dressing one way to be taken seriously as a scientist while dressing another to feel feminine. And while some of the men I wanted to date weren’t put off by my major, many of them were.

Mostly, though, I didn’t go on in physics because not a single professor — not even the adviser who supervised my senior thesis — encouraged me to go to graduate school. Certain this meant I wasn’t talented enough to succeed in physics, I left the rough draft of my senior thesis outside my adviser’s door and slunk away in shame. Pained by the dream I had failed to achieve, I locked my textbooks, lab reports and problem sets in my father’s army footlocker and turned my back on physics and math forever.

Not until 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, wondered aloud at a lunchtime talk why more women don’t end up holding tenured positions in the hard sciences, did I feel compelled to reopen that footlocker. I have known Summers since my teens, when he judged my high-school debate team, and he has always struck me as an admirer of smart women. When he suggested — among several other pertinent reasons — that innate disparities in scientific and mathematical aptitude at the very highest end of the spectrum might account for the paucity of tenured female faculty, I got the sense that he had asked the question because he genuinely cared about the answer. I was taken aback by his suggestion that the problem might have something to do with biological inequalities between the sexes, but as I read the heated responses to his comments, I realized that even I wasn’t sure why so many women were still giving up on physics and math before completing advanced degrees. I decided to look up my former classmates and professors, review the research on women’s performance in STEM fields and return to Yale to see what, if anything, had changed since I studied there. I wanted to understand why I had walked away from my dream, and why so many other women still walk away from theirs.

Eileen Pollack is a professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan and author of “Breaking and Entering” and “In the Mouth.” She is at work on a book about women in the sciences.

Editor: Joel Lovell

Gadgetwise Blog: Earbuds Designed for Women, Not in Pink

When a company says it makes a headphone designed for women, it usually means it has taken regular headphones and painted them pink.

The Koss FitBuds. The Koss FitClips.

The audio company Koss has gone a step further, though, making women’s headphones that are one-third smaller than men’s headphones. And they’re not available in pink.

The line of headphones, the Koss Fit Series, has two models — the FitClips and the FitBuds, both priced at $30.

The FitClips are an in-ear headphone with a retention clip that goes behind the ear. They are made of a soft rubbery material that fit around my smallish (lady-size?) ears comfortably.

The FitBuds go directly into your ear canals and, like the FitClips, come with three sizes of ear cushions.

The headphones sound good for a $30 set. They are a little on the dynamic side, meaning the sound is a little exaggerated. The tone gives it a pleasing effect as though you are listening through a warm old analog tube amplifier. But songs with heavy bass can sound boomy.

One of the selling points of the headphones is that the Olympic swimmer Dara Torres helped design them. Although, do you know who I like to have design my headphones? Headphone designers. Koss said they used those, too. Female designers.

Although these headphones do not come in pink, they do come in purple, yellow, orange, blue and sea foam green. They are available in Walmart stores.

Bits Blog: Homegrown Efforts to Recruit Women in Silicon Valley

Peter DaSilva for The New York Time Margit Wennmachers, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, says the wording of job descriptions can discourage women from applying.

Silicon Valley is not exactly known for its diversity. So when Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, wanted to make sure its job postings were reaching the most diverse audience possible, its partners did what most people in Silicon Valley do when they spot a problem. They turned to software.

They used programs that analyze the language in job descriptions to catch phrases that might turn off certain types of applicants. Looking for a candidate who is “off the charts”? Chances are, not that many women will apply.

“That’s just not how women talk,” said Margit Wennmachers, a partner at the firm. “They say, ‘Must be highly competent.’ ”

It is an example of many homegrown efforts across the Valley to change the face of the tech industry. There have always been big organizations hosting conferences and networking events for women. But newer efforts are springing up from inside companies.

There are programs to teach girls to code, like Girls Who Code, for which companies like Twitter and Google lend office space and teachers. CodeChix, started by engineers at companies like VMware, hosts coding workshops that promise to be “non-alpha.”

The Club is an application-only group trying to provide an alternative to golf courses and men’s membership clubs by coaching women leaders in Silicon Valley. It was founded by Annie Rogaski, a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend, a Valley law firm.

Rachel Sklar, who started a group called Change the Ratio, is introducing an organization called The List where members who pay have access to other women for advice, financing and conference speaking gigs.

“It’s to achieve the function of the classic old boys’ club, which funnels very easy advice and access and opportunity,” Ms. Sklar said.

At Andreessen Horowitz, the firm asks real people, not just software, to review all job descriptions, too — so in addition to the hiring manager, people who are women, African American and from other minority groups in Silicon Valley have input.

The firm also has a partner in charge of diversity who helps acquire a broad set of candidates for the firm’s talent agency, which its 200 portfolio companies tap for engineering and leadership roles. Despite those efforts, all of the firm’s investing partners are men.

“There’s a huge talent war going on, so we are doing a lot of things to try to surface all kinds of diverse talent and bubble that up to our portfolio companies,” Ms. Wennmachers said.

“What I’d like to see is Marla Zuckerberg and Mary Jobs and Joann Bezos.”

Hi Hater: Comedian D.L. Hughley Says He Really Doesn’t Like Black Women Because They Are “Messed Up And Always Angry”

Aren’t his momma, wife and daughters Black?? Oh.

Unfunny funny man D.L. Hughley has never shied away from controversy, offering his tough, unapologetic opinions on race, money, politics and even his family. Hughley joined host Michel Martin on NPR to share his critique of American leaders and to talk about his new book “I Want You to Shut the Fawk Up: How the Audacity of Dopes is Ruining America.”

Via NPR:

MARTIN: OK. But then to go on and in many parts of the book have some very harsh things to say about black women – African-American women.

HUGHLEY: Like what do you think is harsh?

MARTIN: I have to ask, you don’t think that’s a contradiction? Well, this argument that you’re saying that….

HUGHLEY: I don’t – I think my life has been a contradiction.

MARTIN: …black women is – the only black woman you could be married to is your wife.

HUGHLEY: Yes.

MARTIN: …black women are so messed up? I mean what – or because she’s so great?

HUGHLEY: Well, in her ability to kind of tolerate my – it’s her ability to tolerate me, A) and B) I’ve never met an angrier group of people. Like black women are angry just in general. Angry all the time. My assessment, out of, just in my judgment, you either are in charge or they’re in charge, so there’s no kind of day that you get to rest(ph).

MARTIN: Well, I mean I’m thinking you or – one of the ways you came to public attention is your defense of Don Imus for calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team nappy headed ho’s…

HUGHLEY: I can’t, really, that’s like, I can’t disprove or prove a negative, but I can say this: that I have defended any number, I have defended Michael Richards for the N-word. I’ve defended Tracy Morgan for his comments. I defended Rush Limbaugh. You know, to me, you know, what people are talking about has never really kind of worked its way into my mindset. It is the idea that they have the right to say it. So I think that’s really kind of an unfair – optically, that looks different than the way I see things. But…

Stirring up controversy to move a couple of books. Yawn. Isn’t D.L. known for being the unfunniest person on Kings of Comedy? We’re sure a lot of people would love to exchange Bernie back for this jokster.

Do you think D.L. is right? Are all black women angry all the time?

Rent the Runway Uses Real Women to Market High Fashion

Despite knowing all that, when she shops online, she is still flummoxed. The models are generally rail-thin and flat-chested — not like her. “Someone who’s an A-cup doesn’t help me, because it’s definitely going to lay a little bit differently,” said Ms. Hines, 44, a life coach in Franklin Park, N.J.

Now, for women like Ms. Hines, the e-commerce site Rent the Runway is offering a striking solution: replacing models with regular women, and allowing visitors to search for women of a certain age, height, weight and even bust size, to see how that dress looks on someone similar.

Think of it as crowdsourced sizing.

Rent the Runway’s new approach, which it introduced on Friday, is the latest example of a retailer rejecting the idea that women want fantasy when they shop. Instead, it is offering reality, catering to women who are fed up with Photoshopping, airbrushing and the headache of returning multiple sizes of clothing. The start-up Quincy offers clothes in different lengths, bust sizes and waist sizes. Me-Ality installs scanners in malls to match women’s bodies to mall brands. Clothes Horse sells retailers an algorithm and quiz so they can advise customers what size will fit in the retailers’ apparel.

Rent the Runway, though, is taking it a step further. Users of the site can already upload photos of themselves in the clothing — Rent the Runway rents dresses and formal accessories for a few days, at about 10 percent of the retail cost. And women can list their height, weight and chest size alongside their reviews. Now, visitors can perform find-women-like-me searches, ask questions of the other wearers, and choose to see only real-life women rather than models wearing the clothing. (While Rent the Runway will not get rid of the photographs of the models, it will push shoppers toward the real-women photographs and reviews instead.) When Rent the Runway began allowing users to upload photos a year ago, not only did more than half of the people who gave reviews volunteer their weight and bust size, but the site also found that the conversion rate for shoppers who clicked on real photos was double that of shoppers who clicked on model photos.

“Women are smart: you know that while Gisele is beautiful, you don’t look like Gisele,” said Jennifer Hyman, chief executive and co-founder of Rent the Runway, which is based in New York and was started in 2009.

The push toward real-world images, however, could upset some of the luxury brands that sell to Rent the Runway.

“When you present a luxury brand, in my opinion it’s not about being accessible — it’s all about the dream, it’s all about the aspiration,” said Marc Beckman, founder of Designers’ Management Agency, which has negotiated deals for the designers Oscar de la Renta and Stella McCartney. While embracing customers’ own photos made sense for midprice brands, he said, it did not work at the higher end. “There’s a lot at risk,” he said.

Still, high-end fashion has been becoming more inclusive: Ralph Lauren is featuring a plus-size model in a campaign, and other designers are introducing plus-size lines. And the designer Lanvin is featuring real people in an ad campaign.

While Ms. Hyman said she applauded Lanvin for using women who are not models, the design house went only so far. “They cast them, they edited them, they retouched them — it’s not real,” she said. “We’re saying, ‘Any woman can submit a photo.’ ” (Rent the Runway screens for nudity and offensive images, but otherwise, anything goes.)

“We are going to see a continuing steady stream of this,” said Kelly O’Keefe, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter, pointing to sites like Threadless that feature user photos. “It has the advantage for the consumer of seeing how something looks on real people, which is very attractive, and it has the advantage for the brand of getting real user participation, which is great. The disadvantage: people are an imperfect species.”

The reader-submitted photos resemble a bunch of feel-good photos on someone’s refrigerator, giving glimpses into different lives — and body types. Almost 300 women have uploaded pictures of themselves on Rent the Runway in a gold, floor-length, strapless Badgley Mischka dress that rents for $125. They include, for instance, a woman heading to a Marine Corps ball, another posing for a prom in front of a “You’re in Steelers Country” banner, a third wearing it to the Zulu Ball in New Orleans. Laura Sartori, a 24-year-old merchandise planner in Bentonville, Ark., said she depended on other users’ photos to see what works for a tall woman like her.

“Seeing them on real girls, you can get a better gauge of what the dress is going to look like, because it’s not perfect photography or a perfect model,” she said.

Ms. Sartori has lately been posting her own reviews, and she happily volunteered her own height, weight, bust size and body type. “I see that it’s helpful to people, so I don’t mind,” she said.

On the revamped Rent the Runway site, users can ask questions of the real-life wearers: what heel height did you wear with that? Did you wear Spanx? Will that work as a maternity dress?

All of this, of course, could take away from the cachet of a luxury item. “It’s not about the girl around the corner that lives near you and has a Gucci jacket, a martini in her hand and is smoking a cigarette — it’s about the supermodel in Paris, shot by the best photographer,” Mr. Beckman said.

Kylie Murray had some reservations when she was about to rent a DVF sequined dress over the summer and found so many photos of other women in the same dress. “There’s a part of me that was a little bit discouraged, because if anybody can wear this, then what makes it so special?” she said. On the other hand, said Ms. Murray, 25, who works in merchandising in Manhattan, she is 5 feet and 100 pounds, and photos of petite women in the dress were helpful. In fact, Ms. Murray now avoids Rent the Runway dresses that do not have multiple photo reviews.

Ms. Hyman said that designers’ focus on fantasy was misplaced. “Real women are aspirational, when they’re confident and having fun,” she said. “We believe the industry has gotten it wrong when they think of what’s aspirational.”

She said that no brands had withdrawn merchandise since the site started encouraging user photos, and while some brands do not put their goods on Rent the Runway, most of the designers on the site “know that our brand is about getting customers into their brands — we think we’re a gateway drug to designer fashion,” she said.

Ms. Hines, for her part, finally ordered from Rent the Runway when she needed a dress for a company party. She found a Rachel Roy coral sheath, with a square neckline, fitted waist, and a little bit of stretch. Still, she said, she wasn’t that confident in it, since there were no reviews from women who looked like her. The dress fit — but she ordered another size as backup, just in case.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 19, 2012

A caption with an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a model. She is Jenny Fleiss, not Fleis.

Rent the Runway Uses Real Women to Market High Fashion

Despite knowing all that, when she shops online, she is still flummoxed. The models are generally rail-thin and flat-chested — not like her. “Someone who’s an A-cup doesn’t help me, because it’s definitely going to lay a little bit differently,” said Ms. Hines, 44, a life coach in Franklin Park, N.J.

Now, for women like Ms. Hines, the e-commerce site Rent the Runway is offering a striking solution: replacing models with regular women, and allowing visitors to search for women of a certain age, height, weight and even bust size, to see how that dress looks on someone similar.

Think of it as crowdsourced sizing.

Rent the Runway’s new approach, which it introduced on Friday, is the latest example of a retailer rejecting the idea that women want fantasy when they shop. Instead, it is offering reality, catering to women who are fed up with Photoshopping, airbrushing and the headache of returning multiple sizes of clothing. The start-up Quincy offers clothes in different lengths, bust sizes and waist sizes. Me-Ality installs scanners in malls to match women’s bodies to mall brands. Clothes Horse sells retailers an algorithm and quiz so they can advise customers what size will fit in the retailers’ apparel.

Rent the Runway, though, is taking it a step further. Users of the site can already upload photos of themselves in the clothing — Rent the Runway rents dresses and formal accessories for a few days, at about 10 percent of the retail cost. And women can list their height, weight and chest size alongside their reviews. Now, visitors can perform find-women-like-me searches, ask questions of the other wearers, and choose to see only real-life women rather than models wearing the clothing. (While Rent the Runway will not get rid of the photographs of the models, it will push shoppers toward the real-women photographs and reviews instead.) When Rent the Runway began allowing users to upload photos a year ago, not only did more than half of the people who gave reviews volunteer their weight and bust size, but the site also found that the conversion rate for shoppers who clicked on real photos was double that of shoppers who clicked on model photos.

“Women are smart: you know that while Gisele is beautiful, you don’t look like Gisele,” said Jennifer Hyman, chief executive and co-founder of Rent the Runway, which is based in New York and was started in 2009.

The push toward real-world images, however, could upset some of the luxury brands that sell to Rent the Runway.

“When you present a luxury brand, in my opinion it’s not about being accessible — it’s all about the dream, it’s all about the aspiration,” said Marc Beckman, founder of Designers’ Management Agency, which has negotiated deals for the designers Oscar de la Renta and Stella McCartney. While embracing customers’ own photos made sense for midprice brands, he said, it did not work at the higher end. “There’s a lot at risk,” he said.

Still, high-end fashion has been becoming more inclusive: Ralph Lauren is featuring a plus-size model in a campaign, and other designers are introducing plus-size lines. And the designer Lanvin is featuring real people in an ad campaign.

While Ms. Hyman said she applauded Lanvin for using women who are not models, the design house went only so far. “They cast them, they edited them, they retouched them — it’s not real,” she said. “We’re saying, ‘Any woman can submit a photo.’ ” (Rent the Runway screens for nudity and offensive images, but otherwise, anything goes.)

“We are going to see a continuing steady stream of this,” said Kelly O’Keefe, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter, pointing to sites like Threadless that feature user photos. “It has the advantage for the consumer of seeing how something looks on real people, which is very attractive, and it has the advantage for the brand of getting real user participation, which is great. The disadvantage: people are an imperfect species.”

The reader-submitted photos resemble a bunch of feel-good photos on someone’s refrigerator, giving glimpses into different lives — and body types. Almost 300 women have uploaded pictures of themselves on Rent the Runway in a gold, floor-length, strapless Badgley Mischka dress that rents for $125. They include, for instance, a woman heading to a Marine Corps ball, another posing for a prom in front of a “You’re in Steelers Country” banner, a third wearing it to the Zulu Ball in New Orleans. Laura Sartori, a 24-year-old merchandise planner in Bentonville, Ark., said she depended on other users’ photos to see what works for a tall woman like her.

“Seeing them on real girls, you can get a better gauge of what the dress is going to look like, because it’s not perfect photography or a perfect model,” she said.

Ms. Sartori has lately been posting her own reviews, and she happily volunteered her own height, weight, bust size and body type. “I see that it’s helpful to people, so I don’t mind,” she said.

On the revamped Rent the Runway site, users can ask questions of the real-life wearers: what heel height did you wear with that? Did you wear Spanx? Will that work as a maternity dress?

All of this, of course, could take away from the cachet of a luxury item. “It’s not about the girl around the corner that lives near you and has a Gucci jacket, a martini in her hand and is smoking a cigarette — it’s about the supermodel in Paris, shot by the best photographer,” Mr. Beckman said.

Kylie Murray had some reservations when she was about to rent a DVF sequined dress over the summer and found so many photos of other women in the same dress. “There’s a part of me that was a little bit discouraged, because if anybody can wear this, then what makes it so special?” she said. On the other hand, said Ms. Murray, 25, who works in merchandising in Manhattan, she is 5 feet and 100 pounds, and photos of petite women in the dress were helpful. In fact, Ms. Murray now avoids Rent the Runway dresses that do not have multiple photo reviews.

Ms. Hyman said that designers’ focus on fantasy was misplaced. “Real women are aspirational, when they’re confident and having fun,” she said. “We believe the industry has gotten it wrong when they think of what’s aspirational.”

She said that no brands had withdrawn merchandise since the site started encouraging user photos, and while some brands do not put their goods on Rent the Runway, most of the designers on the site “know that our brand is about getting customers into their brands — we think we’re a gateway drug to designer fashion,” she said.

Ms. Hines, for her part, finally ordered from Rent the Runway when she needed a dress for a company party. She found a Rachel Roy coral sheath, with a square neckline, fitted waist, and a little bit of stretch. Still, she said, she wasn’t that confident in it, since there were no reviews from women who looked like her. The dress fit — but she ordered another size as backup, just in case.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 19, 2012

A caption with an earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a model. She is Jenny Fleiss, not Fleis.

Police Brutality - Women Knocked Out By Police Officer

A high ranking police officer punches a innocent lady attending the Philly Puerto Rican Day parade, and knocks her out. A man threw water onto the officer while his back was turned, and the officer turned around and saw the lady holding a water bottle. He punches her in the face, knocking her out during the parade

For Executive Women, Is Maternity Leave Necessary?

“He looks like a little pumpkin,” her brother-in-law remarked. “You should dress him up as a pumpkin for Halloween.”

“I think we can come up with a more creative costume than that,” Mrs. Stern recalls replying. “But that reminds me. ...”

With that, she reached for her laptop and fired off an e-mail to an associate about a Halloween party being planned by her New York business, Divalysscious Moms.

One should note: this was in July.

“There wasn’t even a thought in my mind about taking a maternity leave,” said Mrs. Stern, whose oldest child was 3 at the time. “It was like, Oliver was going to be born, and he was, and life was going to be continuing in — I don’t want to say madness — but the way that I do business.”

Like many women, Mrs. Stern has followed the news that Marissa Mayer, the new chief of Yahoo, is pregnant with her first child, due in October. Ms. Mayer, 37, told Fortune that her maternity leave would be “a few weeks long, and I’ll work throughout it.”

With those nine words, she opened a new front in the debate over work-life balance and that nettlesome phrase “having it all.” The debate was already simmering in the wake of an article in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton professor who had been director of policy planning at the State Department but found, as she wrote, “that juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible.”

Ms. Mayer’s approach? “I like to stay in the rhythm of things,” she told Fortune.

The reactions — on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere — have varied widely. Some criticized Ms. Mayer as a poor role model for working women. Others congratulated her for embracing two challenges at once. Another camp marveled at her naïveté about what was in store.

But what about women who have already taken the path of an abbreviated leave? What do they make of the feverish parsing of Ms. Mayer’s postpartum plans? In interviews, many said that for women at the top of their profession or running their own show, the decision to not take a traditional leave can feel like an empowering choice — and at the same time, not a choice at all.

“You can think of a lot of moms who have more than one child, and do they ever say, ‘I’m going to stop feeding my older child because I have a newborn’?” asked Pooja Sankar, 31, chief executive of Piazza, an online forum for teachers and students to solve problems. Ms. Sankar, who gave birth to her first child three weeks ago, thinks of Piazza as one of her own, too: “I’m the C.E.O. of a company. This ‘child’ depends on me to run, to exist, really.”

Many women have no choice but to quickly return to work because they need the paycheck or can’t risk losing their job. And waitresses, nannies and teachers, for instance, can’t send e-mails from their iPhones and call it “working.”

New parents with the financial means have solutions that others don’t when they have to answer to both a newborn and a boss. Ms. Mayer, for example, will be able to hire as many nannies and baby nurses as she needs. Ms. Sankar’s parents and in-laws are living in her home in Palo Alto, Calif.

When Ivanka Trump flew to Miami on business eight days after giving birth to her daughter, Arabella, last summer, she rode in her father’s plane, returning late that night.

“The nature of the projects I was working on required me to have a hyper-abbreviated maternity leave,” said Ms. Trump, 30. “Yes, there are times when I look back and wish that had not been the case. But it’s life, and it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Still, the heavyweight questions that go beyond simple questions of money inevitably arise when a story like Ms. Mayer’s pops up. Is it progress for high-profile women to willingly forgo their right to a maternity leave? Or, by making maternity leave yet another victim of our always-on culture, does it send the message that taking true time off is only for the uncommitted?

These days, just as vacation is punctuated with work e-mails, maternity leave is not lived 100 percent disconnected, either. Some parents believe this half-on, half-off state is an unfair burden.

But some entrepreneurs like Maria Seidman, 34, of Manhattan say they don’t expect anything else. Two weeks ago, in the recovery room after the birth of her second child, she announced the event via (what else?) Yapp, the business she helped found. It helps people quickly publish mobile applications.

“Nobody had any expectations — not my team, my investors, or my family — that I would be in any way connected,” she said. “I wanted to do it. It was not an obligation. I was updating this app in real time, showing loved ones pictures of the baby. Was that work or life?”

Mrs. Seidman argued that maternity leave itself is “a false construct,” adding, “What does that mean in today’s fused world?”

For Executive Women, Is Maternity Leave Necessary?

“He looks like a little pumpkin,” her brother-in-law remarked. “You should dress him up as a pumpkin for Halloween.”

“I think we can come up with a more creative costume than that,” Mrs. Stern recalls replying. “But that reminds me. ...”

With that, she reached for her laptop and fired off an e-mail to an associate about a Halloween party being planned by her New York business, Divalysscious Moms.

One should note: this was in July.

“There wasn’t even a thought in my mind about taking a maternity leave,” said Mrs. Stern, whose oldest child was 3 at the time. “It was like, Oliver was going to be born, and he was, and life was going to be continuing in — I don’t want to say madness — but the way that I do business.”

Like many women, Mrs. Stern has followed the news that Marissa Mayer, the new chief of Yahoo, is pregnant with her first child, due in October. Ms. Mayer, 37, told Fortune that her maternity leave would be “a few weeks long, and I’ll work throughout it.”

With those nine words, she opened a new front in the debate over work-life balance and that nettlesome phrase “having it all.” The debate was already simmering in the wake of an article in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton professor who had been director of policy planning at the State Department but found, as she wrote, “that juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible.”

Ms. Mayer’s approach? “I like to stay in the rhythm of things,” she told Fortune.

The reactions — on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere — have varied widely. Some criticized Ms. Mayer as a poor role model for working women. Others congratulated her for embracing two challenges at once. Another camp marveled at her naïveté about what was in store.

But what about women who have already taken the path of an abbreviated leave? What do they make of the feverish parsing of Ms. Mayer’s postpartum plans? In interviews, many said that for women at the top of their profession or running their own show, the decision to not take a traditional leave can feel like an empowering choice — and at the same time, not a choice at all.

“You can think of a lot of moms who have more than one child, and do they ever say, ‘I’m going to stop feeding my older child because I have a newborn’?” asked Pooja Sankar, 31, chief executive of Piazza, an online forum for teachers and students to solve problems. Ms. Sankar, who gave birth to her first child three weeks ago, thinks of Piazza as one of her own, too: “I’m the C.E.O. of a company. This ‘child’ depends on me to run, to exist, really.”

Many women have no choice but to quickly return to work because they need the paycheck or can’t risk losing their job. And waitresses, nannies and teachers, for instance, can’t send e-mails from their iPhones and call it “working.”

New parents with the financial means have solutions that others don’t when they have to answer to both a newborn and a boss. Ms. Mayer, for example, will be able to hire as many nannies and baby nurses as she needs. Ms. Sankar’s parents and in-laws are living in her home in Palo Alto, Calif.

When Ivanka Trump flew to Miami on business eight days after giving birth to her daughter, Arabella, last summer, she rode in her father’s plane, returning late that night.

“The nature of the projects I was working on required me to have a hyper-abbreviated maternity leave,” said Ms. Trump, 30. “Yes, there are times when I look back and wish that had not been the case. But it’s life, and it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Still, the heavyweight questions that go beyond simple questions of money inevitably arise when a story like Ms. Mayer’s pops up. Is it progress for high-profile women to willingly forgo their right to a maternity leave? Or, by making maternity leave yet another victim of our always-on culture, does it send the message that taking true time off is only for the uncommitted?

These days, just as vacation is punctuated with work e-mails, maternity leave is not lived 100 percent disconnected, either. Some parents believe this half-on, half-off state is an unfair burden.

But some entrepreneurs like Maria Seidman, 34, of Manhattan say they don’t expect anything else. Two weeks ago, in the recovery room after the birth of her second child, she announced the event via (what else?) Yapp, the business she helped found. It helps people quickly publish mobile applications.

“Nobody had any expectations — not my team, my investors, or my family — that I would be in any way connected,” she said. “I wanted to do it. It was not an obligation. I was updating this app in real time, showing loved ones pictures of the baby. Was that work or life?”

Mrs. Seidman argued that maternity leave itself is “a false construct,” adding, “What does that mean in today’s fused world?”