'we need to employ a male partner'. Help me respond please

[SeriousWispaHabit]

I hope you can all help me. I am a long time lurked on this board and I am now posting because I am so angry I could cry. But I won't because I'm going to go into a meeting in the morning and be completely calm and rational instead ...

I am a GP partner in a large practice. We had an important meeting tonight discussing various things. The senior partner brought up the subject of us advertising for an additional partner to join us. Views are mixed on this and we each had our say. He feels strongly that we need a full time extra partner who is '100% committed and does full hours etc... A man, definitely'
I am full time.
I put in a lot of hours, I work in the evenings at home looking at stuff, I take on extra responsibility all the time. I have 2 small children but I have never taken time off for them being sick. I do late evening surgeries at short notice etc.
I challenged this at the meeting and there was a bit of eye rolling and it was all swept under the carpet a bit. A couple of the other partners looked a bit embarrassed and I don't think it reflects the general attitude.

Not sure exactly why I am posting or what I am asking really. I am just really really pissed off that his attitude is that a man will be somehow better or more committed than a woman and I want to challenge this.

I'm with Celine McBean in thinking you should not make this personal, her suggestions are well-worded imo.

Our practice recently took on a new partner and specifically wanted a female as the others are all male.

I also agree with Celine McBean about not making this personal. It makes me very angry and very sad that the views the dinosaur expressed are still so prevalent.

At my last doctor's surgery it was impossible for me to see a male doctor (they have two senior GP partners who work limited hours). I moved practices because I am uncomfortable seeing a female doctor about certain things. I know that its been said but is this the case with your surgery?

We have fewer male doctors but not a massive inequality. You could certainly choose either sex of doctor most days of the week.

He has apologised to me now. He came and said he could see I was offended and wanted to clear the air. What he meant was he wanted us to employ a full-time partner and generally that means men. Apparently I am the exception to the rule as a [woman] who works full time. To be fair, none of the other female GPs do work full time and all of the men do. We had a bit of a chat about it and why I was so bothered by his attitude.

I am still not happy but he was genuinely upset that he had offended me and really wanted to make it right. He is not a bad person, just a man in his late 50s who has some outdated attitudes to women but who does seem quite open to change and education.

Thanks for all the responses - I was probably much more articulate when speaking to him for having read the thread first.

oops, was trying to do italics then, not sure what I did!

Glad to hear he came to see you and explained, and that you had a chance to put him right (and that he is open to change - I suspect he's had a few people explaining his view is outdated). I can see that he wants a full time partner, and in his experience that would mean a man. Hopefully he now realises that the practice just needs to specify that the role would be full time and then employ the best candidate who wants to work those hours.

I've only just seen this and my first thought was did he consider you to an exception.

SeriousWispaHabit Tue 23-Oct-12 08:33:56
We have fewer male doctors but not a massive inequality. You could certainly choose either sex of doctor most days of the week

Does give a slightly different spin to your original post though, doesn't it?

Why? As I said we have fewer male doctors, but as they are all full time and the majority of the females are not I don't think there is actually that much difference in availability of men and women GPs.

Also, apart from for the odd person who expresses a preference for whatever reason, does it matter?

Well I hope you did mention to him that while you may be unusual in your current practice being full time you are by no means unique and there are other full-time working women in the world!

Also, I don't know exactly how partnerships are financed but if you are self employed is there really that much financial difference between having two people work 25hrs a week and one work 50hrs a week? - in fact, would the two working 25hrs not be more fresh and enthusiastic?

If the issue is the part-timers cherry picking the 'more sociable' hours then that is an issue that needs to be resolved because the business needs to value its part-timers more, ime part-timers often work a larger % of unpaid overtime compared to their paid hours than full-timers.

SeriousWispa - I was like at my keyboard at your original post. It seemed so blatant and 1970s thinking. However, now I read that you have more female than male GPs (albeit part time) I wonder if it might be acceptable in this particular circumstance where male patients might request a male GP?

Personally, I really dont care as a male patient who I get seen by - whether it involves my bits or not but some people feel uncomfortable. Having said that my GP practice has far fewer female than male GPs so would it be acceptable for them to advertise for a female GP to even out the balance?

I wonder if there might be a justification in law to seek a male employee in this special case in your practice as patients have a right to specify male or female GP? On the other hand, if the total available male and female GP working hours are the same in your practice then it probably is not justified.

Could your practice maybe advertise for say one full time or two shared hours GPs if it is just a pure need to add more available GP hours. Specifying a full time only post might be regarded as inadvertent discrimination against women.

My feeling is that it would not be a clear cut case if this ended up in front of a tribunal but you don't want it to go there as part owner of the business. You are right to raise a warning flag in private - to protect your interest if nothing else.

SeriousWispaHabit
Also, apart from for the odd person who expresses a preference for whatever reason, does it matter?

I'm not a GP, so I don't know.
My female GP partner (not DP obviously) said they needed to get a male doctor as otherwise they couldn't deliver the service they needed.

You also didn't point out that the majority of doctors were female - disingenuous when you were - apparently - making a point about sexism.

A question to the OP - did this senior partner hire you as a full-time female partner, or was someone else responsible for hiring when you joined?

onemorechap
Ok, I have worked it out - tricky as we are a massive practice, and we have about the same number of female and male GP hours (a larger number of females but part time), so my point stands.

and even if we did have fewer male GP hours my initial point is still valid as his attitude was sexist and so I was making a point about sexism.

OP

Do you agree that the practice needs another full-time GP? If so, then he was assuming, on the fact that all male GPs work full-time and only you do, while all other female GPs work part-time, that a male would be appropriate. He should, though, have specified just " a full-time GP," as it is clear that you are, as a full-time female GP, exemplary. If the practice does not necessarily require a full-time GP and 2 part-timers would suffice, then, yes, it would appear he would prefer a male GP, for whatever reason and is being sexist.
What ratio of male and female patients are there at your Practice ??

I always see my male GP, and he is so nice and polite, treating me with respect and has a lovely " bedside manner".

The only time I asked to see a female GP, was regarding my female parts.

I think he was naive and made assumptions. Which he's since rightly apologised for.

So a full time female or a couple of part time males would have been better?
Actually, as the hours are about balance a part time male and a part time female should have done.