Womenomics

A recent article in the Economist asks is the European Union at heart a female project? Margot Wallstrom, a vice-president and thus the most senior woman in the European Commission, rather thinks so. She points to the EU's fondness for compromise and listening, and its rejection of horrid things like conflict. Ms Wallstrom, who is charged with selling the EU project to the public, suggests that this is a good reason for giving women a bigger share of the union's top jobs.

The underlying problem is that “men choose men” for important jobs (and isn’t that true in all walks of life), and this harms the EU, maintains Ms Wallstrom. Men and women “complement” each other. For example, male leaders traditionally define security in terms of “military investments”. Female leaders focus more on security achieved through access to clean water and education or “keeping children and women safe”. This is not just a woman's way of looking at security, she contends; it is the European way.

Beyond the usual feminist propaganda, Ms Wallstrom is right on one serious point: that it is (at least on the face of it) outrageous that no woman is in the running for any of Europe's leading jobs. It is a sad waste of talent whenever mediocre men fill seats that could go to more capable women.