sexism in the workplace,,,,

[moulesfrites]

This is the recent situation in my workplace.
Without wanting to give too much away, this is a small institution with around 100 staff, the majority of whom are female. However, up until this point 3 out of 4 key middle managers have been male. The one female is currently pg and is being replaced by a man on her ML.

In the past two days 2 key internal positions have been appointed. In both cases they are maternity covers, in both cases 2 women and one man applied and the men were appointed in both cases.

Can it be possible that in all of these situations the men were simply the best person for the job. Or are they getting fed up of women daring to have babies and therefore replacing them all with men??

I did not think when I entered the workplace in 2006 that I would encounter sexism, but evidently I was wrong.

It may be that the men were the best candidates. The majority of people in my team are women but it doesn't mean that we would discriminate either way - we just want the best person.

It's perfectly possible the men were the best candidates, yes. And as all three of the positions you refer to are maternity covers they are not being replaced by men, their jobs are being done by other people, in these instances men, while they are away.

I think unless there's more to it you can't really say this is sexism tbh. Obviously you work there so may know more about the candidates, especially for the internal recruitments, and may know that the female candidates were more experienced/qualified or whatever. But just from the fact that there have been men appointed in 3 scenarios it's stretching it a bit far to say they are 'getting fed up of women daring to have babies and therefore replacing them all with men'.

Three positions filled with men is well within the bounds of normal. Those stats don't mean much on their own.

Also, if they were really trying to weight things more towards men, doing it with maternity cover people who will probably only be there a short time isn't really very effective...