Author: Mike Buchanan

Gender balance in the boardroom – a sample chapter from ‘The Glass Ceiling Delusion’

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Since I launched The Campaign for Merit in Business a month ago I’m being increasingly asked by senior business people and journalists to present my core arguments against quotas and other positive discrimination measures to ‘improve’ the number of women in boardrooms. The arguments now include the evidence of two studies (University of Michigan and Deutsche Bundesbank) which show that increasing the number of women on boards adversely impacts on corporate performance.  In addition I’ve been supplying people with a chapter (link below) from my 2011 book The Glass Ceiling Delusion: the real reasons more women don’t reach senior positions and thought I should make it freely available to visitors to this blog. The book’s available from all the usual retailers and from myself – I can sign and dedicate it if you wish, and post it to any address worldwide – if ordered through my publishing website www.lpspublishing.co.uk. The chapter:

Gender balance in the boardroom – a sample chapter from ‘The Glass Ceiling Delusion’

An international edition of Swayne O’Pie’s book has just been published

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I’m a big fan of Swayne O’Pie’s book Why Britain Hates Men: Exposing Feminism, followers of this blog may be particularly interested in the extensive section concerning the genders and the world of work. Until now the book’s been available to order in the UK only, but I’m pleased to announce it’s just been published internationally with the title Exposing Feminism: The Thirty Years’ War Against Men. It differs from the British edition only by virtue of a new Foreword, written by myself, and it’s available to order through the usual retailers, including Amazon. The link to the book on Amazon’s American website is below:

http://www.amazon.com/Exposing-Feminism-Thirty-Years-Against/dp/095682191X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338045236&sr=1-1

Faking Public Opinion: how Viviane Reding abuses opinion polls for her own purpose

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While the leading British culprit pushing for ‘improved’ gender diversity in company boardrooms is David Cameron – with his continuing threat of quotas – in the EU it’s Viviane Reding, a Commissioner. I am therefore grateful to Michael Klein of the German language blog http://sciencefiles.org for translating his article into English:

How EU Commissioner Viviane Reding abuses opinion polls

Cristina Odone writes about Dave’s fear of women voters

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As a reader of the Daily Telegraph for 30+ years I despair of the lack of exposure given to gender politics (the Daily Mail is so much better in this area). The male journalists should strap on a pair and write about the topic, but maybe the editor (albeit male) forbids them to. The few articles about gender politics tend to be written by the lady journalists, among the best of whom is Cristina Odone. My thanks to Sylvia for bringing the following excellent blog piece by Ms Odone to my attention:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100159644/david-camerons-fear-of-women-voters-is-going-to-lead-him-and-the-country-to-economic-disaster/

A new IEA blog, ‘Why positive discrimination is ireversible’

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An interesting new blog this afternoon from the IEA, with a link to my own recent blog, ‘The gender diversity delusion’:

http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/why-positive-discrimination-is-irreversible

Why not join me in getting automatic notifications of new IEA blogs, or new comments on existing blogs of interest? They are without doubt well ahead of other leading think tanks in this area (and others, too).

Babcock International Group PLC

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Babcock International Group PLC is a FTSE250 company and a global player in engineering-related services. My thanks to Jason for alerting me to the following excerpt from their last (2011) Annual Report:

Board Diversity  We recognise the value to the effectiveness of boards and board committees of their being able to draw upon a diverse range of skills, experience and outlook from amongst their members so as to bring a wide range of perspectives to the oversight of company strategy, risk mitigation and management performance.  In order to achieve long-term success in a competitive international environment, companies need to draw upon a diverse range of perspectives and competences that are relevant in that environment. .As Babcock grows in size and complexity and increases its activities around the world this is likely to become even more important.  Diversity in this respect is very much about the personal approach, qualities and experience of individual directors and not about simply who or what they are. We note the views of Lord Davies in his Review into Women on Boards published earlier this year as to increasing gender diversity on boards and in senior management roles.  We recognise that gender, like other attributes and experience, can contribute to the diversity of perspective that we seek and that in selecting for board appointments this is something of which we need to be, and are, conscious.  That said, our overriding criterion for appointment must always be merit and the best candidate for the role. We, like others, are sceptical of quotas for the numbers of women (or any other persons based on group characteristics) on boards or in other senior management roles as they do not necessarily deliver the individuals with the best skill set or experience and can lead to tokenism.  We note that Lord Davies’ review does not set quotas as such, but encourages companies to state their aspirations as to the numbers of women on their boards and that his report (and others) recommend specific targets to be aspired to by certain dates.  We understand the good intent and motivation behind this, but believe that stated aspirations as to targets of this kind can easily become self-imposed quotas.  They also inadequately allow for the fact that companies in different sectors have different challenges in this respect. The traditional engineering sector in which Babcock primarily operates is inevitably going to find  that it is more challenging and will take longer to find women candidates with the right experience and background to move into senior management roles and board positions than those operating in some other sectors.

Corporate governance

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Readers of this blog will be familiar with the dire contribution made by the CBI to the advance of the gender diversity in the boardroom initiative. But what about corporate governance more generally? Surely people with a professional interest in corporate governance should be concerned by the evidence showing that forcing more women onto boards (whether through quotas or other means) will damage corporate performance? I’ve today written to a number of leading academics in this field – with titles such as ‘Professor of Corporate Governance’ – and I look forward to their responses. With their prior permissions, I’ll publicise their responses on this blog.

My books

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I’ve written nine books since 2008, the last three have been concerned with the scourge of militant feminism, a movement which has long assaulted individuals and institutions including:

  • men
  • women
  • marriage
  • the family
  • the business sector
  • the legal system
  • academia
  • the media
  • government

… and much else.

My last three books were:

Feminism: the ugly truth (2012)

This title was published (in ebook editions only) on 13 February 2012. It’s readable on all the major e-readers (Kindle, iPad, iPod, Reader, Nook, Kobo…). It’s also readable on PCs and Macs using free-to-download software from the e-reader retailers (Amazon, Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble…). The retail prices have been set at £6.95 / US$9.95 / Euro 8.45 but ebook retailers reserve the right to set the actual selling prices.

The paperback edition is scheduled for publication on 1 July 2012, but this may be delayed. The retail prices have been set at £9.95 / US$14.95 / Euro 12.45.

Both the ebook and the paperback editions contain a sample chapter titled, ‘Would you like to have sex with my wife?’ from my book Two Men in a Car (a businessman, a chauffeur, and their holidays in France). Only the ebook edition contains the plate section from the book (16 colour photographs taken during the holidays).

If you’d like to read some extracts from Feminism: The Ugly Truth please email mikebuchanan@hotmail.co.uk with the request.

The book contains a Foreword penned by the veteran campaigner Erin Pizzey.

The Glass Ceiling Delusion: the real reasons more women don’t reach senior positions (2011)

At long last, someone has taken on the myth of discrimination against women who aspire to senior positions in business, including the boardrooms of major corporations. The Glass Ceiling Delusion demythologizes each of thirty elements the author has identified of the now generally accepted claim that women are discriminated against in the world of white-collar work. Much has been accomplished recently in disclosing the half-truths about women and domestic violence, for example, but Buchanan illuminates an area that other critics of ideological feminism have not considered. Buchanan’s analysis is based partly on his experience of working as an executive for major British and American multinational corporations for over 30 years until 2010. His book should inspire research on settings of corporate power everywhere. Always witty and sometimes even biting in style, Buchanan’s text is grounded in important texts in psychobiology, sociology, history and politics. It is an impassioned yet not angry argument that deserves the careful attention of  policy-makers and a general readership.

Professor Miles Groth PhD, Editor, New Male Studies: An International Journal

The Glass Ceiling Delusion attacks head-on the militant feminist myth that men and women have the same interests and capabilities. Reviewing a wide range of evidence, he shows that the under-representation of women in senior positions in business has nothing to do with discrimination and ‘glass ceilings’, and that attempts to impose quotas are therefore fundamentally flawed. A polemical book with an important message.

Peter Saunders Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Sussex University

Equality of opportunity is a fine thing but equality of outcome is another matter entirely. There is little doubt that men and women have, on average, different talents and interests that make gender quotas in the workplace unfair and impractical. The Glass Ceiling Delusion is a welcome, well-argued addition to the debate about whether women should be pushed up the social ladder just because they are women, and thus at a presumed disadvantage. This is rather an insult to women and Margaret Thatcher, for one, would not have agreed. Individuals should be treated as individuals, not as members of a particular race, class or gender. Whatever the historic injustices, this is the only way that social structures can evolve naturally.

Glenn Wilson Visiting Professor of Psychology, Gresham College, London.

The Glass Ceiling Delusion is an important and brave book, the best book on social economics and society in general published for decades. It’s irresistibly compelling, cogently argued and superbly put together. It should be in all school and college libraries. It should be compulsory reading for social science, economics and politics students. It should be force-fed to male and female politicians. This is definitely a five-star book.

Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant.

Dr Vernon Coleman bestselling English author

David and Goliatha: David Cameron – heir to Harman? (2010)

Mike Buchanan has courageously taken on the radical feminists. For too long this group have dominated the public policy agenda. Pay equality, gender balance in the boardroom, all women shortlists have been given far too much prominence in public life. We needed the other side to be put and in his book Mike Buchanan does just this. His description of the Prime Minister having a ‘female-pattern brain’ is an interesting aspect of David Cameron. Without being insulting it explains some of the current direction of Conservative policy.

The book calls for a fight back against the radical feminists. It deserves to succeed. Women had a long hard justifiable fight to obtain the vote in our democracy (see my book Our Fight for Democracy), but now they have it the radical feminists want special treatment. This is not acceptable, each person’s vote should have an equal value regardless of gender. Manipulating parliamentary candidate short lists to give preference to women is a distortion of democracy and anyone who believes in democracy should oppose it.

John Strafford Chairman of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy

These books, along with my other books, are available to order from the usual sources as well as from www.lpspublishing.co.uk (credit cards and debit cards accepted). If you order through that website you’ll be able to have the book signed, and a dedication of your choice added.

I’m currently working with the British writer Swayne O’Pie – ‘The Feminists’ Nemesis’ – to raise awareness of his book Why Britain Hates Men: Exposing Feminism. Details of this lengthy (456 page) book on www.exposingfeminism.com where it’s available to order for £12.99 (+ £2.95 p&p). The book’s already attracted the following testimonial:

An original and important new book… an intriguing exposé of feminism.

Norman Dennis Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University

A paperback edition of the book was published internationally on 26 May 2012 with the title Exposing Feminism: The Thirty Years’ War Against Men. An ebook edition will be published early June 2012. The selling prices of the two editions have been set at:

Paperback: US$17.95, CAN$ 17.95, AUS$24.95, Euro 15.95.

Ebook: £6.95, US$9.95, CAN$9.95, AUS$9.95, Euro 8.45.

An open letter to the Director-General of the CBI

/ Mike Buchanan / Leave a comment

4 February 2012

Dear Mr Cridland,

The hijacking of the ‘gender balance in the boardroom’ agenda by radical feminists

I hope this finds you well. As the author of a book on the subject of the genders in the workplace1 I read your report, ‘Room at the top: Improving gender diversity on UK corporate boards’ with interest. I’m sorry to see the CBI putting its name on a report filled from beginning to end with radical feminist fantasies, lies, delusions and myths. Most of the assertions in the report are the same as those put forward by feminist campaigning organisations such as The Fawcett Society. I note that in addition to the ‘CBI group on board gender diversity’ you cite four ‘employers and experts’ who contributed to the report, and that all four are women. Quelle surprise. An example of the ‘gender diversity’ I’ve come to expect in this field.

I was at least encouraged by the CBI’s stated opposition to quotas, which is mentioned in the report. But in accepting the feminist arguments for ‘improved’ gender balance in the boardroom you’re making the compulsory introduction of gender balance quotas by this government inevitable. Radical feminists will happily see the business sector damaged by the pursuit of gender initiatives.

The analysis on page 8 of the report, on why existing initiatives aren’t making ‘sufficient’ progress, is enlightening. You show six stages from graduate recruitment to board membership, and I shall comment on each in turn:

Many companies now attract equal proportions of male and female graduates at entry-level posts through positive action initiatives.

‘Positive action initiatives’ are effectively positive discrimination initiatives, which remain illegal. The term itself reflects the weasel words used in The Equality Act (2010), a piece of legislation drawn up by the radical feminists of the last Labour administration and enacted with unseemly haste by the coalition after the last general election. Does the CBI support these illegal initiatives?

Special efforts are made to break down occupation segregation by encouraging women to follow careers based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Those efforts have been failing for decades and will continue to do so, despite millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being focused on the ‘problem’, because they deny that most women’s natures different from most men’s natures. Given the same options, women and men make different choices.

Initiatives designed to boost female representation in middle management have had a positive effect by providing a better work-life balance, through flexible working and occupational maternity provisions, and through developing talent and mentoring programmes.

Again we come to initiatives – this time to ‘boost female representation’ – which are clearly illegal. Leaving this to one side, what has ‘work-life balance’ to do with competing for boardroom positions? In any other field this would be regarded as absurd. Will the athletes at the London Olympics have their prospects of winning medals improved by pursuing work-life balance, or are they competing? And have any companies’ shareholders ever given approval for their money to be spent on the various social engineering programmes you mention?

Female representation starts to fall away at senior management as greater sacrifices are required for progression. For example, some women choose to ‘level down’ their career aspirations to balance their caring responsibilities. Others simply choose not to push for further advancement in the current environment.

These issues simply reflect women’s gender-typical life choices. I refer you to a book written by the psychologist Susan Pinker, The Sexual Paradox. She describes in detail why fewer women than men seek top jobs, and it’s nothing to do with ‘the current environment’.

By the time the pipeline reaches the board, the pool of talent has fallen, limiting the probability of female representation at the highest level.

I agree with this statement but the report omits to mention a blindingly obvious point – the pool of talent has fallen because of the choices made by women themselves.

Educational and career choices made earlier also become evident – with fewer women taking up operational and P&L roles at board level

I also agree with this statement – but I fail to see why companies should respond to this reality with initiatives to ‘improve’ gender diversity in the boardroom.

The CBI isn’t reflecting the views of its members in pursuing the cause of ‘improved’ gender balance in the boardroom, but is actively campaigning against their natural rights to manage their businesses as they see fit. What mandate does the CBI have from its members to pursue gender balance initiatives? I look forward to your response to that specific question, and in the meantime I shall be posting this letter on my blog http://fightingfeminism.wordpress.com. I reserve the right to issue a press release on this matter or after 20 February, and I hope to hear from you before then.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Buchanan

1The Glass Ceiling Delusion: the real reasons more women don’t reach senior positions (2011).

The Institute of Economic Affairs

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A leading think tank, the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs (‘IEA’), has been described by the BBC’s Andrew Marr as ‘… undoubtedly the most influential think tank in modern British history’.  In February 2012 the IEA placed on its website www.iea.org.uk two posts which will be of particular interest to anyone following this blog. I’ve emailed Mark Littlewood, the Director General of the IEA, to ask whether I might reproduce the posts on this blog, and I explained my own interest in the area. Until I hear from him, here are the links:

Professor Philip Booth’s contribution to a recent Woman’s Hour on the topic of women working part-time (there’s a further link, to access the programme directly): http://www.iea.org.uk/in-the-media/media-coverage/part-time-work-is-a-matter-of-free-choice

Mark Littlewood’s post titled, ‘Cameron wrong on boardroom quotas’: http://www.iea.org.uk/in-the-media/press-release/cameron-wrong-on-boardroom-quotas

It’s encouraging to see a highly respected think tank putting forward such strong arguments, while David Cameron and organisations such as the CBI may as well be taking their guidance on gender-related matters directly from the Fawcett Society, and for all I know are.

The email addresses of a number of Mark Littlewood’s colleagues are shown on the IEA website, so I took the opportunity to send them a copy of my email. A ‘leading light’ at the IEA responded with some encouraging words and requested I send a copy of The Glass Ceiling Delusion. I shall, of course, do so with pleasure.

A good start to the day.