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?

To be fair to SirChenjin OP you said... "about how this will make many women feel"

Not "It has made many women who I know feel"

I wouldn't have thought that role would qualify for an Equality Act exemption (happy to be corrected), so they can't just decide that they are only going to consider women for it.

For all the criticisms of the NCT as middle-class and rarefied, it traditionally had women at its centre, and aimed to give them back some autonomy over their bodies and childbirth choices.

It might be that a male candidate had the admin and business skills to edge out a great female applicant, but I can't see a man being able to take on the same PR role aspect of the job when it comes to female empowerment without it all seeming a bit hollow.

I think your view is sexist OP, if he was the best candidate, why should his gender prevent him from getting the job? Do you need to have had cancer to be a leading cancer surgeon? No. So why should being a man prevent him working for a woman's charity. A bit of double standards here I think.

Without knowing anything about the qualities of either this man or his competitors, a priori I think it is a good thing. Issues concerning childbirth etc should not be seen as marginal, monority interests that are only of concern to women. They should be important to everyone. Choosing the best candidate irrespective of gender is consistent with that. And the very fact that a well qualified man wants the job is a positive signal regarding its importance.

This thread v thought-provoking. Will come back in the morning.

And the very fact that a well qualified man wants the job is a positive signal regarding its importance.

Ladies should be jolly well proud of his manly interest!

I can't see a man being able to take on the same PR role aspect of the job when it comes to female empowerment without it all seeming a bit hollow

BitofFun Seem hollow to whom? The same group of fallacious women the OP refers to r.e. "how this will make many women feel."

Fraggle quite

Women are not a minority. But their interests have been marginalised traditionally. NCT in part seeks to challenge that.

Would you all be okay with a white Christian leading a major Muslim organisation? Or indeed a white woman leading the NAACP?

"Fallacious", Been?

Issues concerning childbirth etc should not be seen as marginal, monority interests that are only of concern to women. They should be important to everyone.

irregularregular why do we need a man to point out that issues which concern women aren't "marginal", let alone "minority"?

There are a number of posters on here, that don't know the OP, who object to this. Don't call us fallacious.

RevoltingPeasant Ah, the whataboutery argument, typical of many AIBUs which clearly don't have a reasonable leg to stand on.

Would you be ok with knives leading a forks-only revolt?

Never mind knifey-forky analogies. Let's talk when Movember recruits a female CEO.

YABU. Equality means the best person for the job regardless of gender whatever the job.

"Fallacious", Been?

Yes Annie, a reference to the indignation you've already decided that "many women" will feel, based on your ability to gauge the "sense of entitlement and lack of awareness" of the incumbent CEO.

Ah, so the other women who have posted here, and the women elsewhere whose upset about this alerted me to the problem - they don't exist, right? Or is it that they don't matter to you

Or indeed a white woman leading the NAACP?

Not a thing wrong with a white person working for the NAACP in any capacity.

The problem is, she was a liar.

I value the opinions of others but I don't proclaim to speak for the masses the way you do. I can't discern the measure of the "many women" you speak of.

Clearly some women will take umbrage. As you say, "the other women who have posted here" but others won't see it as a problem, similar to other women who have posted here.

Your stance, IMO - note my opinion - not my belief of what most (or many) women think, tends to work against the very thing it is setting out to achieve.

Especially so when you make such massive leaps of logic such as:
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

-What is his attitude to women? (where has he cited it?)
-How have you worked out his lack of attunement to possible problems? (has he recently had a performance review that no-one knew about, not having even worked there for any length of time?)
-How have you measured his desire to advance himself, more than the organisation? (again, where has he or his peers made such observations?)

If you think his appointment will be bad for the NCT then you are entitled that view. As am I to find it a very narrow and damaging view not least because you disregard anything that doesn't fit in with your own view: "if a man thinks he should lead a woman-centred organisation, then I do make certain assumptions about his attitudes"

Well I'm not keen on a male CEO for a childbirth trust.

It's pretty depressing to realise that actually, women are just not as clever, intelligent, capable, qualified, experienced, skilled (and a load of other qualities) as men... :(

Another CEO post goes to a man.

Men far outweigh women in senior roles in the work place, in politics, in everything significant and important.

So what conclusions must we draw from this?

That men are more intelligent, more capable, more suitable, more skilled and experienced?

Do we actually think that?

Or do we think there's just possibly something else at play? When a woman can't even get a CEO role at the NCT, then it's time to wonder, really.

YANBU. At all.

And the very fact that a well qualified man wants the job is a positive signal regarding its importance.

irregularregular, are you saying that if men aren't interested in something then it isn't important?

Maybe he was the strongest applicant?

This.

A wish for equality works both ways.

I've got no objection to men working for the NCT

But only if they are kept in their place. Switch the gender of your opinions around and see what they sound like.

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.

Or maybe he feels he could do a good job at leading the organisation and has a keen interest in the issues surrounding becoming a parent having seen his wife go through pregnancy and childbirth and all that goes with it.

A really interesting thread - the board must have known there would be fall out from this so can only assume the organisation has some very serious issues or problems that the new ceo has a track record of getting right. With all things being equal it should have gone to a woman.