She is famous because she joined the right startup in the early days. She has never demonstrated that she can repeat her success after driving numerous companie

She is famous because she joined the right startup in the early days. She has never demonstrated that she can repeat her success after driving numerous companies' valuation into the ground post-google. The media loves her because she share the same qualities as Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes. I doubt the other former senior execs at Alphabet would get the same kid glove treatment. It is the same story as Meg Whitman as they both fit the same narrative favored by the media. It is easy to be a generic exec at already successful company, especially if your first job propels you to C level. Fixing a failing company or building a new company from scratch is what distinguishes the truly excellent business people. There is a reason Jobs, Bezos, Gates, and Nadella are looked up to. They either built from scratch a successfully company, brought a failing corporation to success, or both in the case of Jobs. We don't shower praise upon Ballmer precisely because he did a bad job. It would be hypocritical to advocate gender equality by not holding the likes of Mayer and Whitman to the same standards. Just being a good manager and executive is nothing exceptional, you can find plenty to fill these sort of roles from MBA programs. (I will however admit that Yahoo's APM program is a true innovation)