I’ve left a message on the answerphone of the PA of Debbie White, CEO, Sodexo UK & Ireland. As soon as I have her email address I’ll send her a link to this post. The remainder of this post concerns our public challenge to Ms White:

Ms White, good afternoon. I lead the political party Justice for men & boys (and the women who love them) https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com and Campaign for Merit in Business http://c4mb.wordpress.com which campaigns against quotas (and the threat of quotas, as we currently have in the UK) to increase female representation on corporate boards. The reasons for the latter campaign is simple. There’s no evidence of a causal link between increasing female representation on boards and improved corporate financial performance, but plenty of evidence of a causal link with a decline in performance. Our briefing paper on the matter:

http://c4mb.wordpress.com/improving-gender-diversity-on-boards-leads-to-a-decline-in-corporate-performance-the-evidence/

We’ve challenged the government, CBI, dozens of organisations (and hundreds of individuals) to provide evidence of a casual link between increased female representation on boards and enhanced financial performance, and they’ve collectively come up with NOTHING. Even Vince Cable has stopped making claims of a link, in public at least.

Proponents of ‘more women on boards’ tend to offer studies and reports (Catalyst, McKinsey, Credit Suisse, Reuters Thomson…) which show correlations, but on closer inspection all these studies and reports (to the best of our knowledge) make it clear that correlation isn’t proof of causation, nor does it even imply causation. Even Ilene Lang, President/CEO of Catalyst, was unable or unwilling to rise to a public challenge we made in October 2012:

https://j4mbdotorgdotuk.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/our-public-challenge-of-ilene-lang-president-and-ceo-of-catalyst-an-american-organisation-campaigning-for-increased-female-representation-in-boardrooms/

We understand from articles in HR Magazine and Mail Online that you favour the introduction of quotas for women on corporate boards, so we are today making the following public challenge to you:

Campaign for Merit in Business is unaware of any reports or studies showing that companies can expect to improve corporate financial performance as a result of increasing female representation on their boards, and we’ve supplied you with details of five longitudinal studies showing that the result is declines in corporate financial performance. If you challenge these assertions, could you please explain why, and provide evidence of a positive causal link if you have any such evidence? If you don’t challenge the assertions, could you please explain why you support quotas for women on boards, given one consequence will be lower returns for shareholders? Do you believe a declines in financial performance, and lower returns for shareholders, are acceptable prices to pay for increasing female representation on corporate boards?

I look forward to a response to this challenge by 5pm next Monday, 7 October. Thank you.

You may be interested in a piece we posted a little earlier this afternoon:

http://c4mb.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/another-day-another-piece-of-women-on-boards-nonsense/

Best wishes,

Mike Buchanan

mike@j4mb.org.uk

07967 026163

Will the insane policy direction of driving up female representation on boards, despite the strong evidence it will damage companies, never cease? It would seem not. A supporter has pointed me to a piece in ‘HR Magazine’ concerning Debbie White, CEO of Sodexo UK & Ireland, publicly coming out in favour of quotas for women on boards:

http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1078048/ceo-sodexo-uk-introduce-quotas-women-boards

Mail Online has covered the matter in a very superficial manner:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2438150/More-female-bosses-mean-profits-Companies-boards-women-make-42-cent-more.html

The journalist Louise Eccles louiseeccles1@hotmail.com cites a ‘new report’ but fails to say what it is. She then quotes data from Catalyst whose reports have been widely misused by proponents of more women on boards.

I’ll now write and send a public challenge to Debbie White, asking her why there should be more women on boards when the evidence base shows this policy direction will damage Sodexo’s performance and in turn the shareholders’ returns. I’ll give her a week to respond before she’s added to The List of Shame:

http://c4mb.wordpress.com/our-public-challenges-of-high-profile-proponents-of-improved-gender-diversity-in-boardrooms/

A lengthy but impressive article by an Indian-American (link below) published in January 2010. I believe he’s wrong in his predictions about the MRM – in the space of less than four years it’s strengthened considerably, and will continue to do so – but right about so much else.

The Executive Summary:

The Western World has quietly become a civilization that undervalues men and overvalues women, where the state forcibly transfers resources from men to women creating various perverse incentives for otherwise good women to conduct great evil against men and children, and where male nature is vilified but female nature is celebrated.  This is unfair to both genders, and is a recipe for a rapid civilizational decline and displacement, the costs of which will ultimately be borne by a subsequent generation of innocent women, rather than men, as soon as 2020.

The article:

http://www.singularity2050.com/2010/01/the-misandry-bubble.html

A thread of feminist narrative is that men who are lazy, violent, feckless parents etc. are somehow representative of men in general, while women who are lazy, violent, feckless parents etc. aren’t representative of women in general. It’s a thread – usually implied rather than overtly stated – that runs through Woman’s Hour and much else. When women in particular hear this narrative decade after decade, it’s little wonder they believe strongly that women are intrinsically superior to men. So when men dominate any areas e.g. politics, corporate boardrooms, it can only be because men discriminate against women, whether overtly or covertly.

An excellent new article on gender generalisations by Mark Trueblood:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/misandry/if-nawalt-then-namalt/

Another gem from Diana Davison. The lady contributors at ‘A Voice for Men’ keep on delivering impressive material, always grounded in the real world experiences of men and women:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/women-dont-own-sex

Doris McT is on fine form today. Maybe it’s the new brand of ginseng tablets she’s started taking. She’s just tracked down an insightful article by Deborah Orr, published by the Guardian in June 2011 (link at the end of this post). Ms Orr asks, ‘Why is feminism still so afraid to focus on its flaws?’ Wow, isn’t that the $64,000 question?

The position of leading feminists hasn’t moved a centimetre towards focusing on feminism’s flaws in the intervening 28 months, and I suspect it never will. Feminists focus on inventing ever more tortuous ways to assert women are oppressed by ‘the patriarchy’ while to anyone with an IQ in double figures, looking at the realities of the world about them, feminist arguments become ever more absurd over time. Feminism is, above all else, a faith position immune to rational challenging. Maybe that’s why they never enter into rational debates.

Every element of ‘feminist theory’ is demonstrably untrue, to the best of my knowledge. Compared with ‘patriarchy theory’, ‘fairies at the bottom of the garden theory’ seems positively plausible by comparison.

I digress, as I’m inclined to do. Deborah Orr’s piece:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jun/15/feminism-afraid-of-its-flaws

An uplifting piece to end the weekend.

Our thanks to Doris McT., a valued supporter and donor from the beginning, for alerting us to a short but interesting piece we somehow missed before. It was first posted in December 2012. Towards the end of the piece the writer makes an insightful prediction:

I know a scared rat when I see one. The feminist response of whack-a-mole is not strengthening their cause any further than what we’ve seen in the past five years. They are worried that the MRAs are making progress and I personally predict that 2013 will be the year that MRA and other manosphere properties break out into the mainstream.

The piece is here. Enjoy:

http://www.returnofkings.com/1512/is-the-feminist-movement-experiencing-a-meltdown

An article by the odious Janet Street-Porter about David Cameron’s ‘women problem’, and his disinclination to call himself a feminist when asked a question on the matter by Red magazine recently:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/david-cameron-has-a-women-problem-8846455.html

EVERYTHING Dave has done in opposition and in power, whenever there’s a potential gender angle to government policies or legislation, has been resolutely anti-male and pro-female. The acid test? The Fawcett Society have been more quiet during the course of the current government than the three preceding Labour governments in which Harriet Harman was dictating gender policies which struck at the heart of civil society.

Relative to the number of Conservative MPs who are women, women are already over-represented in the Cabinet, as we reported in an earlier post. We can be sure that the upcoming reshuffle will increase that over-representation yet further, and Dave will appoint new female ministers who, had they been men with so little experience and expertise, would have attracted derision in the media.

So is Dave a feminist? Despite his answer to Red magazine, of course he is. He is now, and always has been. He was a deserving winner of the ‘Toady of the Year (2012)’ award. It was contained in a blog post for an associated blog, that of the Anti-Feminism League, in May 2012. The certificate, which has drawn a lot of favourable comment for the photograph embedded in it, is downloadable from this link:

http://fightingfeminism.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/the-foundation-of-the-anti-feminism-league-and-the-award-of-toadies-to-david-cameron-and-the-chairmen-of-33-major-british-companies/

Have a nice day.

Well, that was a programme and a half. Much of what I had to say on the programme will be familiar to readers of this blog and that of Campaign for Merit in Business http://c4mb.wordpress.com. Far more important is the live account of a rally in Toronto. There was a consensus that the rally marked a watershed moment for the men’s human rights movement. AVfM’s subsequent commentary, and a link to the whole programme:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/updates/action-updates/historic-mhra-rally-in-toronto-huge-success/

I’m honoured to have been invited by Erin Pizzey to appear on her AVfM Revelations show from 4:00 – 7:00 today. Now there’s a very important rally happening at the same time in Toronto, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to say. But events in Toronto are important to everyone interested in men’s and boys’ human rights – Miles Groth is going to speak at the University – and the whole programme should be worth listening to, hopefully. The link to AVfM radio (you’ll need to register beforehand, but that shouldn’t take long):

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avoiceformen/2013/09/28/revelations-with-erin-pizzey-rally-in-Toronto

AVfM’s introduction to the show:

The Men’s Human Rights Movement is building a solid wall using bricks of logic and compassion as fortification against Gender Ideologues in Toronto trying to tear apart fundamental human rights and civil liberties. We hope you’ll help us do that.

Events kicked off on Friday, the 27th, where Professor Miles Groth delivered a “controversial” lecture on the “terrifying” topic “Caring About University Men – Why We Need Campus Men’s Centres in a Time of Crisis.” His presentation came off smoothly – for all their bluster, feminists were a no-show. Expect more on this event as our folks process the video and audio recordings.

Very shortly, A Voice for Men, in collaboration with other organizations,

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/avoiceformen/2013/09/28/revelations-with-erin-pizzey-rally-in-toronto

will cover the Men and Boys in Crisis rally in Queen’s Park in Canada’s beautiful city of Toronto. We’ll also be joined by the UK’s own Mike Buchanan of the Justice for Men and Boys (and the women who love them) party. We expect the show to run a full three hours as we talk about all the issues facing the men and boys in our lives who we love and care about, and the crisis so many are undergoing in Canada, the UK, the United States, Australia, India, and so many other parts of the world. We’ll be featuring call-ins from the rally as well as general discussion of events, past and present, as they relate to the anti-male movement and our efforts to fight against it!

Thank you for your support!