Over the past four years I’ve read many reports purporting to show (or implying) a causal link between increased female representation on boards, and enhanced financial performance. All the widely-cited ones of which I’m aware (McKinsey, Credit Suisse, Reuters Thomson, Catalyst…) have had a line or two in the fine print, explaining that the reported correlation doesn’t indicate causation, and (in the more honest reports) that it can’t be taken to even imply causation.

Following our award of a Gormless Feminist of the Month award to Grant Thornton’s Francesca Lagerberg yesterday, we’ve track down the Grant Thornton report she was citing in her BBC radio interview yesterday – Women in Business: the value of diversity. It starts with these words by Ms Lagerberg:

Renewable energy and board diversity: two very different but topical issues with shared challenges. People generally accept that the world needs to move away from fossil fuels; that we can’t go on as we are; that collectively it’s our duty to make progress and clean up our act.

However, unknowns over performance remain: can we rely on renewables when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow? Upfront costs are higher, so how long will it take for the savings to feed through? In the same way, we know there is a moral imperative to get more women on the boards of companies [Note – we KNOW there is a moral imperative?] – that the status quo is the product of a bygone era.

But what about financial performance? Do companies with diverse boards really perform better than those run purely by men, which currently dominate the corporate landscape? The answer is yes: they perform better. Materially better.

It is quite the most woeful report on this topic I’ve ever seen from a major organization, and while a causal link is clearly implied throughout the report, the casual reader could be forgiven for failing to notice that no causal link has been demonstrated, and the lack of a causal link has not been indicated. It is a shameless feminist propaganda piece, nothing more. Grant Thornton need to recognize it as such, and fast, before the company becomes a laughing stock.

Why should you join us in protesting against MGM in a few days’ time? Because, if you have an ounce of humanity, you will want to do all you can to end this:

Do you have something more important to do next Sunday and Monday, than protest against the non-therapeutic mutilations of infant boys’ genitals? Really?

We’ll be supporting Men Do Complain (MDC), a hardworking anti-MGM campaigning organization, at a protest outside the Manchester Central venue, during the first two days of the Conservative party conference – Sunday 4 October, and Monday 5 October. We’ll be handing out thousands of leaflets (A4, printed both sides) to politicians, delegates, the media, and others. More on the protest later in this blog post.

Regular followers of this blog know our #1 campaigning issue for the foreseeable future will be the non-therapeutic genital mutilation of male minors (henceforth ‘MGM’). It was one of 20 areas covered in our election manifesto (pp.9,10). Anyone who doesn’t understand why we consider MGM a grave assault upon the human rights of men and boys might like to familiarise themselves with some or all of the following materials:

William Collins’s blog piece (which explains, among much else, that the prime purpose of MGM is to diminish men’s pleasure during sex)

Global Survey on Circumcision Harm

A man circumcised when he was 18 years old reflects on the impact of the procedure

Mike Buchanan’s presentation to the 2015 AGM of 15 Square, Britain’s foremost anti-MGM charity

We know that MGM has long been illegal in the UK – as an injury of an individual who cannot give informed consent – from a talk given by a prominent barrister in 2013. He also explained in detail how MGM contravenes UN and EU conventions.

In recent months we’ve learned more about Men Do Complain – MDC – a very active and dedicated anti-MGM organization, and have been highly impressed with their level of commitment. Their video channel is here.

We’ll be supporting MDC in a protest outside the Conservative party conference in the afternoon and evening of Sunday 4 October, the first day of the conference, when there will be plenty of media around to record (video as well as audio) what’s going on both inside and outside the conference centre. We’ll also be protesting the following day, Monday 5 October.

We invite you to join us, please email me mike@j4mb.org.uk if you expect to be there.

It surely doesn’t need to be said, but our protests will be respectful and non-violent, and we expect those who oppose our views to be likewise. Some of the women who support MDC and J4MB will be joining us, and we’ll capture the event – including any disturbances – with our own video equipment, for possible later publication on MDC and J4MB video channels.

We shall be handing out joint MDC/J4MB leaflets to politicians, delegates, and others, explaining the case for the government to make MGM specifically illegal at the earliest opportunity. It’s time for gender equality:

FGM has been specifically illegal in the UK since 1985 – 30 years ago.

The more people that attend the protests, the more impact we’ll make. Thank you for your support of our campaign to spare male babies, infants, and children, the harm that is caused by MGM.

Fidelbogen nails it.

Enjoy.

Inspired by the story in Accountancy Age, and following Ms Lagerberg winning her Gormless Feminist of the Month award, we may present her shortly with this award…

Our thanks to Nicholas for pointing us to this, another effort to censor critics of feminism and individual feminists. These critics are obviously misogynists, because they expose lying feminists as… er… liars. They must be stopped. It’s time to end the thoughtcrime.

The video (3:18) is worth catching.

Very good. The first paragraph of the article:

The MRA or mere critic of feminism commonly hears some variation of “Not all feminists are like that”, or “NAFALT”, whenever they attack feminism or call it out on behavior and ideas that seem irrational, cultish, fascist, hysterical, exaggerating, petty, childish, spiteful, greedy, envious, or hateful.

But just because it’s an overused, to the point of becoming a cliché, response whenever someone criticizes feminism, it’s nonetheless worth probing into. Why is it that not all feminists are “like that?” Why would a thoughtful, considerate woman join what is more and more every day showing its true colors as a misandrist hate group that is intolerant of opposing voices?

A deserving winner:

[The BBC radio interview with Francesca Lagerberg has been posted onto our YouTube channel – here. Please leave comments there, rather than here. Thank you.]

Grant Thornton International – GTI – is the hapless employer of a very gormless woman, Francesca Lagerberg. The start of the Wikipedia page on GTI:

Grant Thornton is the world’s sixth largest professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to privately held businesses, public interest entities, and public sector entities.

Ms Lagerberg’s profile on the GTI website is here. She is the company’s ‘Global Leader – Tax Services’. For a gormless woman, she’s clearly done well for herself. The start of her profile:

Francesca has worked in tax for more than 20 years and is the global leader for tax services. Her main focus is helping the Grant Thornton member firms to grow their tax practices and attract, retain and develop talent in the entire global organisation by encouraging a consistently inspiring culture.

Several supporters emailed me this morning, urging me to listen to a four-minute-long interview on this morning’s Today programme, in which a gormless woman I’d never heard of – Ms Lagerberg, it transpires – had evidently uttered some very silly comments about the alleged positive impact of increased female representation on boards, on corporate financial performance.

This is a subject we’ve covered exhaustively at Campaign for Merit in Business, my disinclination to pursue fleeting media pieces on the topic is strong, and I have a lot on my plate, with the Conservative party conference starting in just five days’ time. I replied to one supporter:

I’d sooner engage in a bout of Sumo wrestling with Julie Bindel, than cover this damned story.

Fortunately two supporters kept pressing me, and one is a party member – he kindly gave me the exact time of the interview – so I listened to it, and I’m very pleased I did. You can listen to the interview (with Sarah Montague) on iPlayer for the next 29 days – here, 2:41:49 – 2:45:35.

We’ll be capturing the piece permanently for Ms Lagerberg’s Gormless Feminist of the Month award. Her overall contribution was gormless, but these are my two personal favourite comments:

(2:44:14) As ever, this is all about correlation, it’s not necessarily about causation.

(2:45:29) I’d like to hope the commercial argument is the strongest argument of all.

I’ve already emailed her to congratulate her, and attached the award we presented to Professor Kirstein Rummery for her remark on the same subject.

We’ll be presenting Ms Lagerberg with her award as soon as our award-winning media team has uploaded her interview onto our YouTube channel, and our award-winning graphic design team has prepared her certificate.

A gem of a video (6:28) from tl;dr. Special Snowflake makes an appearance at 3:49, and she has her very serious face on – does she have another one? You have been warned.