My attention was drawn on 16 April 2012 to a British organisation, ENEI, the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion http://enei.org.uk. From the organisation’s website:

The ENEI is the UK’s leading employer network covering all aspects of equality and inclusion issues in the workplace. In addition to supporting employers, our role is to influence Government, business and trade unions, campaigning for real practical change…

Now if any organisation can provide us with the elusive evidence for a positive causal link between gender diversity in the boardroom (‘GDITB’) and improved corporate performance, ENEI must surely be it. I emailed the three senior people in the ENEI with the following:

To:

Denise Keating, Chief Executive (denise.keating@enei.org.uk)

Dan Robertson, Diversity & Inclusion Director (dan.robertson@enei.org.uk)

Alan Beazley, Policy & Research Specialist (alan.beazley@enei.org.uk)

Good morning. For several years I’ve been searching for the evidence of the frequently and  confidently asserted positive causal link between gender diversity in the boardroom (GDITB) and improved corporate performance. I’ve contacted many leading proponents of GDITB including David Cameron, Lord Davies of Abersoch, the CBI, Helena Morrissey of the 30 percent club, the American campaigning organisation Catalyst, and many others, and none has been able to provide me with even a shred of evidence. Perhaps you have the evidence, and if so, would you be so good as to share it with me? The only evidence I can find shows a negative casual link: the Ahern/Dittmar study for the University of Michigan on Norwegian companies post 2004, and the recent Deutsche Bundesbank discussion paper on German banks over 1994-2010.

Would you be so good as to provide me with your evidence by 5pm this coming Friday, 20 April? If you cannot, or will not, I shall reluctantly be forced to conclude yet again that there is no evidence base to support the GDITB initiative. Thank you.

I shall keep you all informed of the outcome of this enquiry.