RETAILING giant Marks & Spencer, currently in the unfamiliar position of having to counter adverse publicity over the alleged indirect use by some of its suppliers of child labour in Third World clothing factories, gained some brownie points from the women's movement this week by at last elevating a female to its board.
The appointment of Ms Clara Freeman (sic) to the new role of personnel director breaks a 112-year old tradition of an all-male M&S boardroom.
The company, where almost 85 per cent of the staff are women, insists that Freeman's appointment to the inner sanctum was strictly on merit and not influenced by pressure from aggrieved female shareholders which erupts at every annual general meeting.
M&S is also to be commended on eschewing the terminology of political correctness in recognising that staff administration is a function of good, old-fashioned personnel management, not the vacuous "human resources" tag now lamentably so fashionable in business.