Author: Mike Buchanan

Positive discrimination for women at the Bank of England

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My thanks to George for sending me an article from the Mail on Sunday issue of 10 June. It’s an interview by Lisa Buckingham of Catherine Brown, the Bank of England’s executive director of human resources. Brown is paid £200,000 a year, not bad for someone whose key aim in her working life appears to be social engineering. From the article:

When Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King prompted outraged headlines for taking his seat at Wimbledon and attending the cricket at Lord’s while the global economy faced meltdown, he was apparently doing only what all his staff are urged to do. Not necessarily in such esteemed surroundings, of course. But employees at the Bank of England from the Governor down are encouraged to work flexibly. Indeed, according to Catherine Brown, the Bank’s executive director of human resources, there are ‘no fixed hours’ at our premier City regulator.

‘We are output-focused – there are no set hours,’ she says, adding that this has been crucial to the Bank’s success in recruiting women and to keeping its staff turnover at an astonishingly low four per cent a year…

What does this say about the work ethic of (a) women, and (b) public sector employees? And these are the people who are going to regulate British business? From the same article:

Brown, 46, says: ‘…while the governors and directors are very largely white and male, that is a snapshot in time and in five years it may look very different.’ … this year the intake of women has shot up to 45 per cent…

A Tibetan Buddhist – she became interested in the faith after spending time trekking in the Himalayas – Brown says: ‘I do have a very strong commitment to ensuring that the values on which the global economy are based are decency and fairness. Emerging economies are better if they have these characteristics. The UK economy has these core values and the Bank has a clear role to play in that.

‘Decency and fairness’. Here we have yet again the use of terms (‘diversity’ is another) which seem reasonable but which are ALWAYS used to justify one thing – positive discrimination for women in recruitment and promotion terms, regardless of merit. We need have no doubt that pressures on companies to hire more female directors will increase. I’m reminded of a quotation from the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom (1962):

Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.

The Bank of England is paying Catherine Brown £200,000 a year to ‘thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society’. You couldn’t make it up.

Deutsche Bundesbank discussion paper – new link

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The original link to the Deutsche Bundesbank discussion paper (which covers among other issues the negative impact of increasing the number of women on corporate boards) is no longer ‘live’, but the following link is still operational:

http://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Publications/Discussion_Paper_1/2012/2012_03_06_dkp_03.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

Please let me know if this link fails at any point. Thank you.

You couldn’t make it up… the response of a FTSE100 company to my invitation to the IEA

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Regular visitors to this blog will be aware that I recently invited senior people – mainly CEOs – from major companies to attend my presentation on gender diversity in the boardroom, and in senior executive positions more generally, at The Institute of Economic Affairs on 29 August. Today I had an email response from the secretary of the CEO of a FTSE100 company. She explained that my invitation ‘was passed to the Group HR Director’. Whether the CEO was made aware of my invitation, was not made clear, but ’The Group HR Director does not have any interest in attending the presentation’. I then enquired whether this person might want one of two colleagues to attend. The CEO’s secretary’s response is as follows. Honestly, I’m not making this up:

We are currently looking at gender diversity in the workplace, so don’t feel this would be of interest.

I’ve emailed back to explain that they should have an interest precisely because they’ll otherwise only hear one side of the argument. I don’t imagine I’ll get a response.

I’m glad I’m not a shareholder in this company, bent as it is – like most FTSE100 companies – on a social engineering experiment which can only harm UK plc, and the rest of the country by extension.

We need to talk about Vince Cable

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It seems I was premature in declaring a small victory had been won in the battle against the ideological goal of ‘improved’ gender balance in the boardroom. I’d inferred from broadsheet newspaper reports that Theresa May, Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, had written to EU Commissioner Viviane Reding opposing EU imposition of quotas for women in the boardroom, that this was the government’s revised domestic position also. I was wrong, it now seems. I’m grateful to Fred for pointing me towards the following article on yesterday’s Mail Online. It concerns the coalition’s ultra-Leftie Business Secretary, and the piece is titled, “Firms face compulsory quotas if they don’t put women in top jobs, insists Vince Cable”:

Businesses could be hit with compulsory quotas to increase the number of women on boards unless they raise the number voluntarily, said Vince Cable. The Business Secretary said he was ready to introduce legal targets if firms had failed to ensure a quarter of executives at board level were female by 2015. He also suggested that if he were prime minister, half of the Cabinet would be women.

More women should be promoted in the boardroom under guidelines being pushed by The Business Secretary. Mr Cable said there were encouraging signs that firms were beginning to heed calls for gender equality – revealing figures suggesting that in the past three months, half of new appointments to FTSE company boards have been women.

He said he planned to ‘name and shame’ companies that fail to make further progress. One in ten of Britain’s biggest firms still has all-male boards. ‘It’s very, very important that women are there in numbers,’ Mr Cable said. ‘Our objective is to get a quarter of all board membership being women by 2015. Our current approach, which is trying to change the culture, trying to name and shame, I think will work. If it doesn’t, we can look at things like quotas. There is a body called the Financial Reporting Council that requires companies to declare publicly what they do. So companies will be in the future publicly identified and there will then be a role for me to go out and say publicly, “This is a disgrace, you should change your behaviour”.’

Asked whether he would introduce quotas if that approach failed to deliver the target figures, the Business Secretary said: ‘I would, yes. I think that’s a perfectly legitimate last resort. But I think the current approach that we have adopted is beginning to produce serious results, so let’s give it a chance.’

The EU has announced a consultation on how to increase women’s presence on corporate boards, warning that progress towards equality is too slow. Mandatory quotas are being threatened if member states fail to make sufficient progress. The EU’s Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has warned that on current rates of change, it will take more than 40 years for women to hold 40 per cent of board positions in Europe’s publicly traded companies.

In Britain, companies are working towards a voluntary target to increase the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards to 25 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent last year. But business leaders have warned against compulsory quotas. On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour the Business Secretary also took a swipe at David Cameron’s failure to meet an aspiration that a third of his ministers should be women. There are five women – all Conservative – in the Cabinet.

In a reference to the new French president’s decision to make half of his top team female, Mr Cable said: ‘If I ever finish up in Mr Cameron’s job, and who knows what could happen, you might well get a Francois Hollande moment.’

Meanwhile, Tory MP Peter Bone demanded that Vince Cable be sacked from the Cabinet after it emerged that the Business Secretary was in contact with Labour to discuss a possible alliance following the next election. At the weekend it was revealed that Mr Cable had held phone conversations with Labour leader Ed Miliband.

The appointment of a noted Leftie to such an important position, and the fact he’s still there, are indicators of how left-wing and feminist-friendly David Cameron is himself. I was warning of this two years ago, and herewith give you a chapter titled, ‘David Cameron: heir to Harman?’ from The Glass Ceiling Delusion:

120106 sample chapter from ‘The Glass Ceiling Delusion’

A presentation at The Institute of Economic Affairs

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I’ve been delighted by the response to the blog I posted on the website of The Institute of Economic Affairs on 24 April:

http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/the-gender-diversity-delusion

The IEA has been pleased with the level of interest shown in the piece, and intrigued by the absence of evidence from commentators in support of the claim that ‘improved’ gender diversity in the boardroom can be expected to lead to improved corporate performance. I’ll be making a presentation at the IEA on 29 August, on the topic of gender diversity in the boardroom and in senior executive positions generally. Although the government recently indicated it’s dropping the threat of forcing companies to increase the number of women on their boards [note added 7 June: this now appears not to be the case – see the following: http://fightingfeminism.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/we-need-to-talk-about-vince-cable/] it’s still committed to ‘encouraging’ companies to do so, and  is spending taxpayers’ money in support of the effort.

The IEA is expecting some 40 attendees, mainly economists, and with their agreement I’m inviting leading business figures as well as a number of politicians, newspaper and magazine editors, business editors, other journalists, writers and academics.

Ms Marx and Her Brothers

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People often ask me why I’m so concerned about militant feminism and its various manifestations, such as ‘improved’ gender diversity in the boardroom. There are many reasons but one is that militant feminism is a cloak behind which socialism lurks and exerts its malign influence. In his book Why Britain Hates Men: Exposing Feminism (on sale in the UK only, the international edition is titled Exposing Feminism: The Thirty Years’ War Against Men) the British campaigner and writer Swayne O’Pie – ‘The Feminists’ Nemesis’ – memorably calls feminism ‘Socialism’s Trojan Horse’. He’s kindly agreed to my suggestion that I put a chapter from his book on this blog. It’s titled, ‘Ms Marx and Her Brothers’. Enjoy:

120604 chapter 5 from ‘Exposing Feminism’

I recommend the book highly; and at 460 pages in length, it’s terrific value. It’s available to order from www.exposingfeminism.com and in the next week or two it will be made available as an ebook with the title Exposing Feminism.

The glass ceiling, glass cliff, and now – the glass escalator

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My thanks to Petronella for pointing me towards a story to be filed away under (her words, not mine), ‘Stuff you couldn’t make up’. Not unless, she points out, you’re a female academic. Here’s the link to the story Petronella found online. Enjoy:

http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2012/05/glass-ceiling-glass-cliff-and-now-the-glass-escalator/

I was particularly intrigued by (American) Professor Goldberg’s statement that, ‘Having a greater proportion of men raises salaries’. Given that two of the three fields she cites are overwhelmingly found in the public sector, what would be the mechanism by which salaries are raised? A question I’ll be putting to Professor Goldberg in an email later today.

A former top female judge talks sense about quotas for judicial appointments

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My thanks to Fred for pointing me towards an excellent article in yesterday’s Daily Mail. The paper continues to be almost unique among British mass-market newspapers in its challenging of feminist thinking and manipulations. The Daily Telegraph routinely cites feminist-inspired ‘studies’ and reports issues by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, and the Department for Business, as if they were holy writ which must be reported without challenge. The article:

120529 Daily Mail article

My open letters to Rt Hon Theresa May MP and Rt Hon Vince Cable MP

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[Note added 17 July 2012: my joy at the government’s decision to remove the threat of quotas for women on boards was premature. The risk still remains. The government was merely objecting officially to EU-imposed quotas, but continues itself to threaten them if companies don’t increase the proportion of women on their boards ‘voluntarily’.]

Fresh from celebrations over the government’s decision to remove the threat of quotas for women in the boardroom – a matter reported in this blog yesterday – I read the following in today’s Telegraph:

The Department for Business and the Home Office said a ‘growing body’ of research was showing that ‘diverse’ boards made companies more effective.

Supporters of the Campaign for Merit in Business know this statement is a blatant untruth. In consequence, I’ve just posted a letter to the heads of the two departments officially spreading the untruth, Vince Cable and Theresa May. They’re virtually identical (the letters, not the politicians, obviously, you’d never struggle to tell them apart) and I’ll just include Mrs May’s letter here:

120529 letter to Rt Hon Theresa May MP

I shall post the responses from Mrs May and Mr Cable upon receipt (if any), along with details of ‘the growing body of research’ (if any). Please don’t hold your breath.

A small but important victory for meritocracy

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[Note added 17 July 2012: It turned out I was wrong in thinking there’d been a small victory for meritocracy. After I posted the following it emerged that the government’s objections to quotas related only to EU-imposed quotas. The government from David Cameron down – and Vince Cable in particular – continues to threaten quotas if companies fail to ‘improve’ the proportion of women on their boards ‘voluntarily’. What might George Orwell have made of this abuse of the language, one wonders?]

Today’s papers bring welcome news of an important victory in the battle for meritocracy in British boardrooms. The government has made it known that it is to drop its threat to legislate for quotas for female directors in the boardroom. To what extent The Campaign for Merit in Business (‘CMB’) can claim any credit for bringing about this decision, we have no way of knowing, because the government – feminist-friendly in its senior reaches, most notably David Cameron himself – refuses to engage with us. Probably a bigger factor is the belated recognition that only a small number of women (compared with men) have the experience and expertise necessary to contribute effectively as board directors, even at the ‘gravy train’ non-executive director level.

But the CMB remains the only organisation in the UK articulating the case for meritocracy in business, and campaigning against special treatment for identifiable groups (e.g. women) at the expense of other groups (e.g. men). We know from whistle-blowers that our messages are getting across, and the government was faced with the unappealing prospect of imposing quotas for women when it’s clear that this could only damage UK plc, at a time when the economy needs all the help it can get.

Senior business people (men and women) are increasingly accepting the validity of the arguments we’re putting forward. The CBI – as these people’s representatives – should be articulating the case for meritocracy in British boardrooms but as readers of this blog will know, the organisation has caved in to feminist thinking on the matter of gender diversity in the boardroom, despite being unable to offer a shred of evidence to support its claim that gender diversity can be expected to improve corporate performance.

With the withdrawal of the threat of quotas for women in the boardroom, is the battle won? Far from it. This is a small, albeit critical, victory in the fight against ‘improved’ gender diversity in the senior levels of the corporate sector. The campaign to force more women onto boards is ideological in nature, and cannot therefore be defeated, only thwarted. One of the objectives of the CMB is to equip senior business people with the information and the resolve they require to thwart the manipulative women behind the campaign, along with their male collaborators, many of whom are ‘captains of industry’. Besides which, we have yet to see how the odious initiative spearheaded by EU Commissioner Viviane Reding will play out.

It’s presumably no coincidence of timing that the dropping of quotas was announced in parallel with the publication today of a study carried out for the ultra-left-wing Equality and Human Rights Commission (‘EHRC’). The report was drawn up by the Cranfield School of Management, which on gender matters reliably means The Cranfield International Centre for Women Leaders (‘CICWL’), long-term campaigners for more women on boards. Regular readers of this blog will be aware that CICWL is among many campaigning bodies which have been unwilling (or, more realistically, unable) to provide evidence to back up their assertions of a positive causal relationship between more women on boards, and improved corporate performance. I called the CICWL to ask for the job title of the lady mentioned in the article below, Elena Doldor, and was told by the lady on the switchboard that she didn’t know her job title, but her personal title is ‘Ms.’ Quelle surprise. Women working in the field of ‘gender diversity’ often seem to be titled ‘Ms.’ A little clue there to their left-wing politics.

My thanks to Michael Klein of http://sciencefiles.org for supplying me with a PDF of the ‘study’ in question. Enjoy:

120528 Cranfield School of Management report for EHRC

With the EHRC being so left-wing, what better paper to draw upon for an article on this topic than the Guardian? Obviously my political convictions prevent me from buying the paper but I was able to copy down the following article from today’s edition at the library. It’s basically a rehashed ‘glass ceiling’ story, as usual:

MALE ELITE BARS WOMEN’S WAY TO TOP, SAYS STUDY

The ‘male-dominated corporate elite’ occupying the boardrooms of the UK’s biggest companies is deterring the appointment of women to the upper echelons of corporate Britain, the equalities watchdog warns today. The first in-depth study of recruitment of non-executive directors by headhunters, carried out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, finds that the men who hold the majority of seats around the tables of the 350 biggest companies listed in London tend to select new members with similar characteristics to themselves…

“The often subjective way of making appointments ends up replicating existing boards rather than bringing in talented women who bring real benefits to individual company performance and ultimately help Britain’s economic recovery,” said Lady Prosser, deputy chair of the EHRC.

It is now more than a year since Lord Davies, the former banker and a Labour trade minister, set out targets for women to hold 25% of boardroom positions by 2015, and the government is preparing to tell European policymakers that it does not endorse proposals for mandatory quotas in boardrooms across Europe…

In January this year there were 143 women in non-executive director roles in the  FTSE100 and only 20, or 6.6%, in executive roles.

The report for the EHRC, by Cranfield School of Management, was based on academic literature and interviews with 10 headhunting firms in London which had signed up to a new code. Elena Doldor, author of the report, says that headhunters needed to do more to keep women in the running for boardroom positions…

The study shows that the appointment of board members is often driven by a “homogeneous elite group of individuals at the top of the FTSE100 companies”…