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?

Please tell me, exactly what do you think the role of a CEO is?

I'm astonished people don't see ANY issue with the overrepresentation of men in leadership and management positions in jobs and organisations where the membership is predominantly female. It's about proportionality not about the merits of one particular individual. There is lots of research that implicitly men and women are more biased towards men in interview eg likely to perceive him as more qualified by virtue of being male.

This - exactly, duplodon, and everyone else who made the same point. I've already said I have no problem with men working at the NCT, and that indeed I'd actively like them to do more of the low-paid and volunteer work that is presently mostly done by women. I've got no problem with male surgeons and midwives for women who are comfortable with that (the person who lifted my son out of my abdomen was a man), though women should always have a choice. What I'm not happy with is a pyramid with women at every part of it except the top, where a man stands, in an organisation whose mission statement (pregnancy, birth and parenting) primarily affects women.

Do you think Rupert Murdoch has to know how to make a sky digi box? Looking at the size of Mike Ashley, do you think he plays much sports? Malcolm Glazier, a top footballer? Sheik Bakr Bin Kaden, do you think he's ever laid a brick on his life? I could on. You don't have to be the best at everything to manage and direct those that are. Hence why on earth should the CEO of the NCT have to have a used uterus?

Laden...

At the individual level, no issue with there being this particular man.

However, if we start to see a pattern of men being fast-tracked to a disproportionate number of management positions in the NCT, it does raise questions about what's going on. I think it's known as the "glass elevator" phenomenon?

LinkedIn

uk.linkedin.com/pub/nick-wilkie/9/ab0/9b2

Interesting...

Operations Director and Adviser
The Harry Wilkie Initiative and Cabinet Office
May 2012 – April 2013 (1 year)
An extraordinarily enjoyable year of parenthood interspersed with part-time work on a review of youth social action

Some of you critising haven't even bothered to see what he HAS done. That pisses me off more than anything else.

Yabu.

I agree with stinkers. It's not as if he's going to be taking the practical classes. And even if he did, with the correct training that would be fine.

He was obviously the strongest candidate for the position. Heels outlined what the charity need to tackle very well.

The previous CEO was shit (not because she was a woman), hopefully this one will do a good job (and not because he's a man!).

Yabu, the ceo should be whoever is best suited for the role, irrespective of genitals. Very sexist.

I am all for the best candidate getting the role.

However, 95% of CEOs in FTSE 100 companies are male. Of course, it's possible that men are better than women 9.5 times out of 10, or it could be that there's another factor at play here...

(Source: www.cityam.com/212103/ftse-hits-7000-these-are-men-and-few-women-who-run-britains-biggest-companies )

So, ohhello, do you genuinely believe that men are nine times more suitable than women to be CEOs?

So you would all be happy with an organisation for black people, with a white CEO at the head of it?

I would. If they had the right attitudes and skills to achieve the aims of the organisation. If they would be better placed to challenge discrimination than another candidate.

You can't compare it to a Christian heading up a Muslim organisation because they would have different attitudes and views.

I am also more than happy to take health and parenting advice from people who've never had children or given birth, if they're qualified. I find it quite offensive that women who haven't had children are percieved by some to be unable to provide support in some areas - eg be Homestart volunteers.

This thread is exactly why I've stopped calling myself a feminist. Equality is not equality if it's only when it suits us.

You can be hugely concerned about the lack of female representation in business without being bothered that the CEO of the NCT is a man.

An extraordinarily enjoyable year of parenthood interspersed with part-time work on a review of youth social action

That's lovely but doesn't actually say much. NCT is all about the first 1000 days so pregnancy, childbirth, babies and toddlers. Was he looking after a baby or a toddler?

Horribly sexist thread.

So, AuntyMag, are you saying the massively disproportionate appointment of men to senior positions is sexist, or are you saying I'm sexist for pointing it out?

MrsFiona, how many women want to be CEOs though? Nearly all of my female friends chose to work part time after they had kids. Because they wanted to be the one who's at home with the kids. Even the ones who earned more than their partners still wanted to be the one at home with the kids.

I don't know karma, but then neither do you. And you wouldn't be questioning it if it was a woman.

Either way it looks like he took time out of a full time high powered career in the voluntary sector to work part time so he could spend time with his family.

And that experience was working with government and didn't hinder his subsequent career.

Maybe a woman could have done the same. Maybe they couldn't. However he wouldn't be expected to, yet took the opportunity to, and clearly recognised its value and importance and that it isn't just something 'that women do'.

Sounds to me that he is a pretty good candidate. I don't know if he's the best, but he does seem to be a lot more credible than people here are suggesting.

But still pick holes and be sexist, cos that's going to benefit everyone.

And you wouldn't be questioning it if it was a woman.

Actually I would. I maintain that this is one of the very few CEO roles where experiencing pregnancy, childbirth and caring for infants should put you at an advantage but apparently that's not the case as the "best" candidate for this job doesn't seem to have much experience of any of these things.

karma how do you know he doesn't have experience? His mother might have died in childbirth, his wife might have suffered birth trauma and PND....you don't know. No he hasn't personally given birth to a child but men are very much involved in the childbirth experience now, I've met some dads who were traumatised after watching their partners go through a horrible birth, who've struggled to adjust to parenting, men who are very into supporting their partner's choice of a home birth and do lots of research into it etc.

I can tell you from working in maternity and having seen hundreds of women give birth, whether the person looking after them is male, female, has got children or not makes no difference to the passion for their job or empathy for women. I worked with a midwife who had 6 children - that's not easy, so you'd think she'd have some understanding. No, one woman we looked after she was rolling her eyes and tutting at her and basically said to me she thought she was a wuss. I don't have children and I was horrified by that. The reason I went into it was because of my family's negative experiences of birth. So I don't have first hand experience of it but childbirth and parenting issues have effected my family and I've met many male doctors and consultants who are very passionate about promoting choice for women and helping them. Equally, I've met some horrible ones, just as I've met horrible female consultants and doctors and nice female consultants and doctors. I've seen female doctors do VEs on women that were quite frankly, rough and horrid. In my experience, the sex of the person makes no difference.

Now I can understand why some women would prefer to have a female midwife or doctor. I can understand why some women might prefer a female CEO. But the NCT has always come across to me as a parenting organisation, rather than merely something that's just for women. But I honestly don't think having a female CEO would necessarily translate into someone who had better understanding of childbirth or parenting issues or more passion for the cause. I would rather get a job on my own merit, not just because I have a vagina. If this man had more experience and passion for the role than a woman then I think that's fair enough. I understand the point about men having more senior roles than women generally but that isn't the fault of the NCT or of him - if this is something he's genuinely interested in, why shouldn't he have a chance?

Bertrand your comment about men encroaching on childbirth issues in the 20th century is interesting. I wouldn't say that's entirely accurate though - men have been involved in childbirth for a long time, at least since the 1600s/1700s. And whether you agree with it or not, men are expected to play a large role in childbirth now. Fathers are expected to act as a birth partner whether they'd be any good at it or not. I don't always think that's a good thing (some are utterly useless whilst others are brilliant). I looked after a woman once who had her brother with her - I thought that was odd but he was actually really supportive and lovely.

And whoever made the comment about the NAACP - the fact the leader was white wasn't the problem, it was the fact she's a nutcase who lied about her family and pretended to be something she isn't. As long as this CEO isn't going around saying he knows exactly what childbirth is like, like that woman who'd pretended she'd been discriminated against as a black woman, then I don't see why he can't bring something positive to the NCT. I also think it's a good thing that a man is interested in being involved with it.

YANBU. NCT's focus should be on childbirth, and women. Sick of this what about the menz. Men are predominantly in management roles. They rule enough. Let women govern our interests. I don't give a fuck about a man's perspective on childbirth and pregnancy.

And it was a woman who set up the NCT.

"The National Childbirth Trust, originally called The Natural Childbirth Trust, was founded in 1956 as the result of an advertisement placed in The Times by Prunella Briance. Briance was inspired by the writings of British obstetrician Grantly Dick-Read, who is regarded by many as the father of natural childbirth, and became the first president of the NCT.[2] At that time the rules of childbirth dictated that women did as their doctors told them. Very little information about pregnancy and birth was available. The resulting ignorance bred fear, and fear led to pain and a lack of support in childbirth and early parenthood."

OP So your issue is with male CEOs in general, and not specifically in the NCT? Why bring NCT into it?

karma how do you know he doesn't have experience?

I'm happy to admit that none of us know either way but I do think there'd be more information out there if he had done any significant baby or toddler care. If nothing else NCT would be publicising it to prove they'd made the right choice.

if this is something he's genuinely interested in, why shouldn't he have a chance?

If this is something he's interested in, has he ever done a volunteer role for the NCT or similar parenting charity. As the OP says it would be lovely to see more men take an active interest in doing some of the grunt work.

NCT's focus should be on childbirth, and women.

But what if he's the best candidate to support that agenda? What if having a man as CEO this time helps promote the view that men should take an equal share in bringing up children, which will benefit women in the future?

What about the man in India who painstakingly researched and designed a machine to help women make their own sanitary towels? Should they tell him to sod off because he can't possibly understand what it's like to have a period?