Marissa Mayer doesn’t particularly care for feminism

But Marissa Mayer wouldn’t be where she is today were it not for feminism.

Here’s what she told the PBS-AOL series “Makers” about her relationship to feminism:

I don’t think that I would consider myself a feminist. I think that I certainly believe in equal rights, I believe that women are just as capable, if not more so in a lot of different dimensions, but I don’t, I think have, sort of, the militant drive and the sort of, the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that. And I think it’s too bad, but I do think that feminism has become in many ways a more negative word. You know, there are amazing opportunities all over the world for women, and I think that there is more good that comes out of positive energy around that than comes out of negative energy.

Mayer is a remarkable woman who’s achieved great things, and I’m sure there are more to come. But I don’t use the word “remarkable” there to mean “impressive” or “great.” I use it to mean “that which merits remarking upon, because it is rare or otherwise notable.” Mayer is a woman, and in the tech world she is a high-ranking and very powerful person. That is remarkable, in that it is rare or otherwise notable. And the fact that it is rare or otherwise notable is a sign that feminism’s work is not done, despite all those “amazing opportunities all over the world for women.” In a world where a hiring decision like this one is momentous, groundbreaking, trailblazing news, being a feminist is not having a chip on your shoulder. It is simply an awareness of reality.

And Marissa, it is too bad that feminism has become a negative word. You know what’s also too bad? Your failure to acknowledge that without feminism, you could never have become the CEO of Yahoo.