Liz Watson, Senior Advisor

On Monday, the news broke that a pregnant woman is now leading a Fortune 500 company—an important and exciting milestone. Before being appointed CEO of Yahoo this week, Marissa Mayer disclosed her pregnancy to Yahoo’s Board. When she announced her pregnancy publicly on Monday, she praised the Board for its “evolved thinking” in hiring her anyway – that is, for not violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

I’m not so sure following the law is all that praiseworthy, but here’s what made me cringe as I read the otherwise great news of a pregnant woman breaking through the glass ceiling:

Mayer told Forbes, “My maternity leave will be a few weeks long and I’ll work throughout it.”

I’m picturing a phalanx of 24/7 baby nurses, a state-of-the-art high-tech home office located in a spacious and sunny corner of a beautiful nursery, an in-house lactation consultant, a personal chef, and, don’t forget the personal trainer! As the CEO, Mayer will be free to telecommute to her heart’s content, which is not at all the situation for most working women.

At its core, Anne-Marie Slaughter’s recent article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” says this: The way we work cannot stay the same when the composition of our workforce has forever changed.

I’ll add to that: Public policies and voluntary employer practices that reflect the realities of today’s workforce are long overdue.

In the majority of families, both parents go to work and most families depend on both parents’ incomes to stay afloat. If it ever was, this is no longer “just” a women’s issue. Most men and women today have converged on the belief that both sexes can be good workers and good parents. Men are increasingly involved in child care and other tasks at home, although women still do the largest share of this work.

A lot has changed, but too much remains the same. While today’s households are structured radically differently than they were in 1950, the workplace has clung to the 1950’s image of the ideal (male) worker who is always at the employer’s beck and call, and unencumbered by outside demands on his or her time. But that “ideal worker” image is completely at odds with reality for most of the American workforce.

This is a big problem. And it’s not just a problem for Slaughter or a problem for you or me or for women, it’s a problem for all of us. The solutions lie in changing the way that work and society are structured.

So, let’s talk about those solutions: Paid parental leave and paid sick days are absolutely necessary but not sufficient. On a day-to-day basis workers need schedules that are both flexible and predictable, allowing them to get their jobs done, while attending to the realities of everyday life. Of course, quality, affordable child care makes the very short list.