Chris Maclean: Are male licensees becoming obselete?

I suspect I deceive myself.

In our relationship I like to think of myself as the businessman and my wife as the support crew. I make the decisive moves; she steps in and fills the gaps. There has to be a thinker. There has to be a do-er. Mr. Maclean does the important policy making decisions. Mrs. Maclean implements them. It is a natural, and logical, apportioning of responsibilities. But I'm increasingly realising how vulnerable I am.

When I went for our interview for my first pub, almost twenty years ago, I remember arriving in the chairman's office. Two chairs, one slightly aside and behind the other, were available for us. There were three of them. The chairman, property director and district manager sat behind an imposing desk. I gestured for my wife to sit in the first seat. I was firmly chastised. I was to sit there. "She" was to sit behind. It was clear I was the primary force in the forthcoming arrangement. "She" was another consideration.

It fills my heart with horror when pubcos, and licensees themselves, interpret the future of a particular pub in terms of a genial "mein host​" male licensee standing entertaining his customers whilst a submissive wife slaves in a sweaty hell-hole of a kitchen.

I'm suprised more licensees aren't found lying in a pool of blood with a kitchen knife firmly embedded between their shoulder-blades. To presume your wife would accept such slavery is one thing - to then build the foundation of your business upon such an un-equal division of labour is extraordinary.

Yet there is a presumption that this is a solid foundation upon which businesses can succeed. Indeed I can point to a few where that is exactly how they have achieved their success. But upon close examination you will find that the partners have achieved a distinctly separate role - but their status is equal. It would be a fool who suggested otherwise.

Anyway I deviate from my predicament.

This week we were approached by a group who needed to organise a "breakfast meeting" with food, teas & coffees and a host of other provisions. Breakfasts are my wife's area. I assumed that this would be an impossible challenge. That this was outside Mrs Maclean's comfort zone. Not so.

What surprised me was her ability to rise to the challenge and be resourceful enough to make it happen. This wasn't "Oh no, that isn't possible". It was "How can we help you achieve this?". Respect.

So when Mrs Maclean starts creating business like that can I continue to regard her as ancillary to the business? Surely she is a core?

Last week I read that scientists are now capable of creating, artificially, sperm. It suggests men are now not necessary. If my wife continues on this line it looks like my position is increasingly impossible.

It looks, alarmingly, that blokes are something we don't need anymore. I hope it isn't so.

Pubs are going to be a very different deal if blokes prove entirely unnecessary.

I hope I'm dead by then. But until I'm dead lets pretend we're in control, eh?