Bring on the girls

Bring on the girls

5 Nov 2013

A few weeks ago, I listened to Carolyn McCall, CEO of Easyjet, choosing her Desert Island Discs on Radio 4. After her first 18 months in the job, the shares have taken off, soared and flown since the start of last year (+187% as I write). I found myself thinking that she had timed that career move perfectly – there has been a tremendous cyclical recovery in many airline stocks. Then I wondered if I was being a little harsh. We will never know, obviously, but would things have gone so well if Mr Buggins in a suit and tie had been appointed instead? Then a week ago a friend e-mailed me to ask what I think of Mitie shares and I replied: “I’m ok with Mitie. It’s run by women”. He thought I was being humorous and in a way he was right. It was a true but unserious answer. Yet it had emerged from my sub-conscious and caused me to wonder whether I might prefer companies with female executives. (Mitie is a stand-out as both the CEO and CFO are women). I have as many unsubstantiated and uninteresting views on the different qualities of the sexes as anyone but I do not make investments on the basis of generalisations like that. I want to see some statistics. So I went looking for some. First, some background about where we are, in the UK, on this topic. Girls are now outperforming boys academically and I read a comment piece the other day saying effectively that we should now be more worried about the fate of our young men. Be that as it may, it is widely recognised that the scarcity of women at board level is egregious. Many people would say that it is unfair and proof of discrimination. I would say that it is prima facie evidence of a damaging waste of talent that, as an investor, might well be costing me money. In February 2011, the government published a document entitled “Women on Boards”. Britain is the only country that could commission a report on “diversity” from a white chap known as Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE but this quote from...