Private women’s membership start-up, Chief, is currently in hot water for what some have called ... [+]
Update, [March 23, 2023]: This article has been updated since initial publication to include additional comments from Chief about its practices and policies. Also, key details about Chief, including that according to their website, 33% of its members belong to underrepresented ethnic or racial groups, were added for context. The writer has reached out to additional Chief members about their experiences and will update this article when she hears back.
Private women’s membership start-up, Chief, is currently in hot water for what some have called displays of exclusion, bias and white feminism. The woman-led start-up was founded in 2019 and was able to raise over $100 million dollars in funding, reaching unicorn status. In 2021, Chief was recognized as one of the 10 most innovative workplace companies by Fast Company. Self-described as “a powerful rolodex of senior executives from diverse backgrounds, industries, and organization,” Chief boasts a 20,000-member network. According to Chief’s website, at the end of 2022, 33% of their members belonged to an underrepresented ethnic or racial group. But some have claimed the group is not all it’s cracked up to be.
Several women have taken to LinkedIn to express their frustrations with the group. Several past, current, and prospective members from underrepresented racial groups agreed to be interviewed about their experiences for this article. Over a dozen current and prospective Chief members shared their experiences with exclusion and bias but did not want to be identified. A few current members shared that their group membership had not been what they thought it would be and they did not feel the support they thought they would when they joined the group. A few prospective members told me privately that although they met the qualifications listed on the website, when they applied for membership they did not receive correspondence back, or any information regarding why they were not accepted.
Chief explained their process in more detail in an email statement. “Like many professional organizations for senior executives, we assess and qualify applicants for executive seniority to ensure our members can gain support for specific challenges with true executive-level peers. As such, we use a range of factors to determine if an applicant’s seniority level meets the criteria for the Chief community. If an applicant does not yet meet our criteria for membership, we do not send a rejection email. This has always been our policy and applies to everyone—not any specific identity groups or individuals. Instead, we keep their information on file in the event they experience a role change or their scope increases. It is inaccurate to make a claim that we ‘ghost’ women of color. As noted, we do not send rejection emails to anyone who is not accepted to our network.”
In a now viral LinkedIn post on International Women’s Day 2023, Denise Conroy shared that she was canceling her Chief membership. In the post, Conroy explained that her decision was based on the group’s prioritization of white feminism. Conroy explained her many issues with the group including the apparent bias that is baked into their practices. “Members are supposed to be able to refer qualified women for membership. I’ve referred three...all women of color. All three have been ghosted. Neither I nor they have received even any acknowledgement of their candidacy. I’ve learned from others this experience isn’t unique.” It is important to note that although women from underrepresented backgrounds have sounded the alarm about Chief in the past, it wasn’t until Denise Conroy, a white woman, shared her experiences that a statement was made and actions were taken by Chief.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 18: (L-R) Chief Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer Lindsay Kaplan, ... [+]
In response to the backlash Chief has been receiving, the co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan shared in email statement: “Recently, there have been concerns and even some mischaracterizations raised about Chief and our values that we want to address—specifically how we think about building our community, the identity groups represented, our approach to intersectional feminism, and how we support the advancement of underrepresented groups in business. We take all feedback we receive from members of our community very seriously, and we are providing a forum to have these important, honest conversations. There is always more work that can be done, and this is an ongoing journey for all of us—something in which we'll always be invested because it’s the foundation of the impact we want Chief to have in the world. We are committed to improving and building on our existing foundation.”
CEO and lead consultant of equity firm DSRD Consulting, Samantha-Rae (“Dr Sam”) Dickenson, EdD, shared her thoughts on Chief’s reaction to the recent criticism and backlash. Dickenson explained “on their website they dedicate an entire page to DEI efforts and the diversity of their community, however, numerous women of color, particularly Black women, who meet the requirements have shared they were denied membership, treated as an afterthought or ghosted. To retroactively issue blanket statements, without reaching out directly to the community they claim to serve sounds like the goal is to save face rather than fix the issues and be truly inclusive.”
Seeing the sense of camaraderie and community from group members was what initially piqued Natasha Bowman’s curiosity. “I was interested in joining Chief after seeing so many executive women sporting the green sweatshirt and talking about how supported they felt in that community. At the same time, I was messaged by two founding women who told me that they had nominated me for membership. I never heard from Chief so I decided to reach out to them. During our conversation, they informed me that I wasn’t qualified as the requirement was that you must lead an organization with at least 300 people in the reporting structure...shortly after, I saw white women were joining Chief who did not meet the eligibility requirements,” she explained. Bowman is a leadership firm president, speaker, and author who has earned recognition for her work. After Bowman shared her experience, Chief reached out to her. “I wrote a LinkedIn post about being denied membership. It was only then that they reached out and extended an invitation. I never received an explanation as to why I was denied membership to begin with.”
"I wrote a LinkedIn post about being denied membership. It was only then that they reached out and ... [+]
Prior to Denise Conroy’s viral post, chief marketing officer advisor Lola Bakare had shared her thoughts about Chief and the apprehension she felt about joining the group in a LinkedIn post. Bakare shared, “I’ve read that the mission is to help women reach the most senior levels of leadership...I’ve also read that target members are women at the most senior levels of leadership. What am I missing? I ask in public because I’m one of the many women who believes in the mission and is considering joining the ranks, but feels a little iffy about the inclusiveness of the approach. I do want to join a women’s advocacy group. I don’t want to join a women’s country club.” Many women, particularly those from marginalized groups, may have felt that Chief was out of reach for them.
With the high price tag, members who join the group expect to feel valued and supported, but for Netta Jenkins, this wasn’t the case. “I officially joined Chief on March 1, 2022 to connect and take my businesses to the next level,” Jenkins shared. Jenkins is an executive, founder and author. “Upon joining, I was direct about the $8,000 fee being extremely high of a price point. I inquired about grants and received their grant [that reduced my annual rate to] $3,800.” In 2022 it was reported that Chief membership fees were $5,800 a year for women at the vice president level and $7,900 for those within the C-suite, with many members getting their fees covered by their employers. Despite exorbitant annual fees, the group may not have done enough to prioritize the needs of their members. “My cohort group kicked off and I loved my group. Things quickly took a turn after my [core guide] passed away. The group received an email about the passing. I was devastated. Someone that was coaching us for close to a year passed and the founder didn’t personally send us an email. They didn’t visit the group to check in. It was treated as business as usual...the new instructor was kind, but I was disgusted by the lack of empathy and it had me question if Chief founders saw people simply as a number,” Jenkins explained.
In an email statement, Chief explained what transpired after the passing of Wendy Wright, the core guide that led Jenkin’s cohort. “Wendy was a beloved guide to her two Core Groups. Our founders were devastated by her passing and extremely involved in actions we took to support her family and Chief members who were guided by Wendy in their Core Group. Carolyn and Lindsay wanted to be sure members were supported during this difficult time and felt the best approach was to have a Chief team member—who has experience facilitating sessions related to grief in the professional workplace—hold a session to honor Wendy's work and life and create space for members to offer reflections and process their grief...Chief also made a donation in Wendy’s honor to a charitable organization her family selected.”
"Hearing stories from multiple Black women in my network...was off-putting to me"
Some Chief members have decided that the membership simply isn’t worth it. Senior executive Sibil Sebastian Patri shared in a LinkedIn post that she ended her membership because, from her vantage point, Chief is “not centering women of color and other intersectionalities, and [they] can grow and apologize and be better. This will require lots of work.” President and CEO Dr. Nika White shared that she recently canceled her membership after seeing how Black women were treated. “Hearing stories from multiple Black women in my network...was off-putting to me. As a Chief member making that hefty investment, I had to interrogate that further to learn for myself how my experience could be so vastly different from other Black women in and outside of my circle. It was during those conversations that I become more deeply exposed to how commonly Black women were harmed by some type of engagement with Chief, either as a prospect eager to join or as a member. These discoveries made me re-evaluate my membership.” White went on to explain, “Although my intake experience was the opposite, as a Black woman, and equity practitioner, I could not in good conscience justify renewing my membership for a second year.”
Chief wanted to make it clear that they take claims of mistreatment and exclusion seriously. In an email, Chief shared “Intersectionality is baked into our foundation and we’re building a community that centers diverse perspectives, creates space for identity-based conversations, and informs business leaders on a wide range of topics related to DEI. We fully acknowledge how personal, complex and nuanced this work is. It’s an ongoing, never-ending journey and we’re committed to listening, learning, and improving as we grow. We are communicating the actions we are taking with our valued membership group and our team.”
It is important to reflect on the timeless words of bell hooks who wrote in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, “There could be no real sisterhood between white women and women of color if white women were not able to divest of white supremacy, if feminist movement were not fundamentally anti-racist.” Any group, community or organization that is tailored for women must be designed with the most underserved, underrepresented and marginalized individuals in mind. As hooks has written, it is possible for women to achieve self-actualization and success without dominating one another. It should be noted that any approach to women’s advancement that does not consider intersectionality will fail. This situation should be a learning lesson for everyone. Creating a community where every member is able to thrive requires you to prioritize the members that are on the margins; those from the most vulnerable populations. Failing to center their needs means that any group, community or organization will not be sustainable.
