In August last year, the Financial Times’ board decreed an end to men-only conference panels. Male journalists were encouraged to say we would not appear on panels, whether organised by the FT or by others, if no women were on the stage with us.
This was not just a challenge to me as a speaker, but as a panel organiser; I frequently have to find both FT colleagues and outside experts to appear at our events and on our executive education programmes.
Some are unhappy about the consequences of “no manel” policies, and they are not all disgruntled men. Done crudely, these initiatives can look like tokenism and box-ticking. Amanda Bittner, a political scientist at Memorial University in Canada, told the FT last month that she resented being asked to take part in a conference just because she was female.