AIBU to be disappointed that the new CEO of the NCT is a man?

[ArcheryAnnie]

The new CEO of the NCT is due to start work shortly - a man, Nick Wilkie.

The NCT's mission is to support parents during pregnancy, birth and early childhood. Their line re the new CEO is that men can be parents, but my line is that it's only women who get pregnant and give birth.

There are many, many senior, suitably qualified women in the UK who could perform this role. Furthermore, from my experience with the NCT, all the events I went to, it was women who do most of the work. I'm tired of organisations where women make up the majority of the volunteers, or the workers, but where a man is the CEO. I didn't expect it of the NCT.

AIBU to feel massively disappointed that the NCT are putting a man in charge?

male CEO not make.

In an ideal world perhaps it shouldn't matter. But in this less-than-ideal world, I find that it does matter to me, very much.

This is a figurehead position, in a society where there are way, way fewer women CEOs than men CEOs. It really sends an unpleasant message - stand back ladies, you may be doing most of the work, but here's an important man to lead you.

Really? That's a shame you feel that way. I'm looking at the person and what that person has achieved in their working life. That person seems to have a set of values and experiences which sits very well with those of the NCT.

Hmmm I was going to say YABU but actually on further pondering, YANBU. Men, a man really, encroaching or appropriating a women centric organisation. Hmmmmm.

Worry I don't know.

I have only recently become a mum and thought for many years I did not want children. And then, that I wouldn't be able to have any.

I lean towards feeling that a woman who has experienced obs/gynae care firsthand has relevant personal experience here.

But I'm unsure about that part.

It's devinitely not as clear cut for me as the man issue, as child free women haven't been trying to appropriate childbirth for much of human history!

Sorry Worra, dyac!

ArcheryAnnie I think it is highly unlikely that no suitable women applied! But if none of them were as suitable as this man, what were the panel to do?

This is not one of those very rare posts for which gender is a qualification. Laws against discrimination were passed to define those few posts and to make it unlawful to treat it as a one where it is not. It's not for the NCT to pretend those laws aren't there.

Applications don't happen in some mystical way that the people hiring have no control over.

What sort of control do you think the people hiring should exercise?

In the end people either do apply or they don't. If you get a gender imbalance in applications you may have to learn lessons for future promotion or appointment exercises - but you can't fiddle the process this time round.

The thing is, NCT isn't just about childbirth anymore. Yes, they started off as the National Childbirth Trust and that's still their legal name, but the use of the name NCT isn't just an acronym, it was deliberately changed about 7 years ago as part of them rebranding as a parenting charity. A Belinda Phipps initiative. So childbirth is only a fraction of what they do now, and in recent years they've focused more on the parenting aspect of their work.

Except that if a man can apply for a job like this - and there aren't many jobs like this - then it tells me a lot of things about his attitudes to women, his lack of attunement to possible problems, and his desire to advance himself more than the organisation, all of which I think will be actively bad for the NCT.

REALLY? You think a man was the best applicant for CEO of the NCT?

Just what women need - a man telling them how to do pregnancy and childbirth.

And it's for the interviewing panel to establish whether he has the wrong attitudes which trouble you. Evidently they thought not. I assume you don't want them to apply a stereotype and assume that because he is male he must have certain attitudes?

Goodnight, all!

That's a massive set of assumptions to have made there OP - or do you have proof of that?

What sort of control do you think the people hiring should exercise?

There's a great deal of research on why women don't apply for jobs they are very qualified for (and why men do apply for jobs they aren't). If you are appointing a CEO then you pay attention to your hiring process.

And if you do all the right things and women don't apply, you should appoint another interim CEO and the trustees should have a good hard look at the organisation, because if you are a woman-centred organisation that women don't want to work for, you've got some really deep-seated problems that need to be addressed first.

Except that if a man can apply for a job like this - and there aren't many jobs like this - then it tells me a lot of things about his attitudes to women, his lack of attunement to possible problems, and his desire to advance himself more than the organisation, all of which I think will be actively bad for the NCT

Annie It's now quite clear how blinkered your view is. Do you know anything about this man's background?

Thing is, Andrew if a man thinks he should lead a woman-centred organisation, then I do make certain assumptions about his attitudes, and in particular his sense of entitlement and his lack of awareness about how this will make many women feel.

Where does it say that women don't want to work for the NCT? What you have is an organisation who have chosen a particular person for the role based on their skills, experiences and values.

OP - I would suggest that you consider writing to the NCT and putting your concerns to them. All you're doing at the moment is making sweeping and generalised statements about what his dastardly reasons for applying were and their recruitment processes. Unless you know the man personally, and have inside knowledge about who applied and how they appointed, it's all baseless.

This is a figurehead position, in a society where there are way, way fewer women CEOs than men CEOs. It really sends an unpleasant message - stand back ladies, you may be doing most of the work, but here's an important man to lead you.

^ This

It just seems a bit wrong to me too.

about how this will make many women feel

And another massive assumption from you...or are you saying that you know for a fact that this is how many women will feel?

YABU and sexist.

SirChenjin that was a hypothetical in response to someone who posited that maybe no suitable women applied.

And yes, I'm going to write to the NCT. I'm amazingly good at multitasking, though, so I'm posting here, too, as I am entitled to do.

(And you are making sweeping and generalised statements about what I'm doing - which is your right, of course.)

SirChenjin it was seeing other women upset about this that alerted me to the problem in the first place. So yes, I do know for a fact that this is how many women I know feel.

(I'm here for your apology for telling me it was a massive assumption, anytime.)

Hypothetical - and also ridiculous.

I'm glad to hear that you're going to write to the NCT (although the fact that you're going to, rather than actually writing as you're typing, means you're not actually multitasking...). I suspect however that they will not say anything that will change your fixed view on this, just as your AIBU hasn't.

So what you meant was 'many women you know' as opposed to 'many women generally'? Ah, now you should have said so in the first place.