Selling Women Cheap?

More women directors will rein in excessive pay, says David Cameron – The Guardian I know Halloween is traditionally a day for disguise but I am not sure what this notion is masquerading as. Always eager to see support for more women on boards, I was interested to hear that Cameron was talking about the beneficial effect of women on boards.   In reaction to the 49% increase in FTSE salaries for top directors, David Cameron has suggested that this is yet another good reason to have women on boards as it will ‘drive down pay’. Now, we all know more women on the board is good for profits and innovation so more women is certainly good for business but I’m not sure what evidence or argument there is for using women to drive down men’s pay! His argument seems to be that women would end the ‘closed shop’ currently existing in most British boardrooms. Wow, that is going to make them a popular choice for board appointment isn’t it? Pick a woman – she’ll drive your income down! One assumes women, showing more emotional intelligence, might be in touch with what the general public is likely to think of these enormous pay rises and resist increasing the differential between the most senior and the general hoi polloi – the workers at a rather delicate time. However, it sounds a little like Cameron is assuming we can get senior women to do the same job as senior men but for much less money. . .  . We know women have, in fact, been doing this for a long time. The Equal Pay Act came into law in 1970 but predictions are that it will take another 98 years to actually get equal pay. Surely he can’t be assuming that we can bank on women being prepared to sell themselves so cheaply and be treated so unfairly? Maybe it’s just the way I’m reading it. What do you think?