I am sure there must have been a time when feminism was concerned with the interests of the low-paid and disadvantaged – before, that is, it became almost wholly concerned with powerful, well-paid women demanding even higher money. Nicky Morgan and her Treasury Select Committee have found an injustice which puts into the shade the gross injustices suffered by female BBC presenters on £150,000 a year. They have identified a ‘gender bonus gap’ in the City which they say is a whopping 67 per cent.
The reason, contends Morgan, is that female City workers are put off by the grubby business of having to negotiate their own bonuses. This practice, she says, “should be replaced by a system where performance bonuses are assessed against objective and formulaic criteria”. Whether women are less capable than men at negotiating their own bonuses is not an issue on which I feel qualified to judge, but if – as Morgan implies – they are, wouldn’t that be a good reason why City firms might be reluctant to employ them? Surely the whole point of many City jobs is to cut hard-nosed deals.
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