Mike Buchanan (1957-) is a British anti-feminist Men’s Rights Activist, author, publisher and cruciverbalist. He was the founder (in 2013) and remains the leader of this political party (which reverted to its original name ‘Justice for Men & Boys’ in December 2022). He handed over leadership of the party to Elizabeth Hobson, formerly the party’s Director of Communications, in May, 2020. She resigned in March, 2021, after realising that her new full-time job left her unable to devote the time and energy required for the role of J4MB party leader. Mike re-assumed the role.
After obtaining a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry in 1979 at one of the three most prestigious universities in the UK – Oxford, Cambridge, Reading – Mike started a career with the Beecham corporation. He was a business executive and later a consultant. One of his consulting clients was the Conservative party (2006-8). He developed a revolutionary new business model for the conferences which delivered profits of over £11.5 million to the party over 2007-14, details here.
Along with many other party members, he cancelled his party membership in 2009 after David Cameron announced his intention to employ all-women shortlists for the selection of prospective parliamentary candidates for the next general election.
In 2010, at the age of 52, he took early retirement, after deciding to devote the rest of his life to challenging the toxic ideology of feminism. He has never regretted that decision.
Mike launched two campaigns in 2012, The Anti-Feminism League and Campaign for Merit in Business.
The world’s first International Conference on Men’s Issues was hosted by A Voice for Men (AVfM) near Detroit in June 2014. It was a huge success, and Mike was one of the speakers (these two facts may possibly be unrelated). A video of his speech, and the associated transcript, can be accessed here.
J4MB hosted the second International Conference on Men’s Issues at Excel London in July 2016, in association with A Voice for Men. The event had 20 speakers (including five women and a Conservative MP, Philip Davies) and drew attendees from 20 countries. It was a resounding success. A video of Mike’s speech ‘The Political War on Men and Boys’ is here, a video of Philip Davies’s speech ‘The Justice Gender Gap’ here.
J4MB supported A Voice for Men and a number of other organizations in organizing the third International Conference on Men’s Issues, held in Gold Coast, Australia, in June 2017. The conference website is here, a playlist of the presentations and related materials here. The video of Mike’s presentation, ‘Lets Get Physical – Beyond Keyboard Activism’, is here.
J4MB hosted the fourth International Conference on Men’s Issues at Excel London in July 2018, again in association with A Voice for Men.
Along with Elizabeth Hobson, Mike was a key organizer of ICMI20, a virtual conference with 120 videos from individual speakers (and interviews) over November 14-19, 2020, ending on International Men’s Day.
Videos of the 250+ presentations at the 2014/16/17/18/19/20 ICMIs are in individual event playlists, here.
Mike is the Conference Director for ICMI21, another virtual event with many speakers, which will be a very interactive event for attendees and speakers, with live interviews Q&A sessions etc.
He will be the Conference Director for future online ICMIs and in-person ICMIs in Europe.
J4MB seeks to raise public consciousness about the disadvantages and discriminations faced by men and boys in modern Britain, which are primarily the consequence of the state’s actions and inactions, designed to privilege women and girls. The proposed name of the party, and some of the thinking behind launching a political party, were exclusively revealed in Mike’s article published by A Voice for Men in 2013. By October 2015 AVfM had published over 60 of Mike’s articles, they’re available here.
Mike’s 10 books are available to order worldwide through online retailers and traditional bookstores. He runs LPS publishing, which offers a service to writers wanting to see their books published as paperbacks, hardbacks, or ebooks. A number of his books can be ordered directly from him, signed and dedicated, if you wish. Details on the website.
Mike’s last three books were concerned with gender-related matters:
David and Goliatha: David Cameron – heir to Harman? (2010)
The Glass Ceiling Delusion: the REAL reasons more women don’t reach senior positions (2011)
Feminism: the ugly truth (2016)
The Glass Ceiling Delusion has received numerous testimonials including the following:
Equality of opportunity is a fine thing but equality of outcome is another matter entirely. There is little doubt that men and women have, on average, different talents and interests that make gender quotas in the workplace unfair and impractical. The Glass Ceiling Delusion is a welcome, well-argued addition to the debate about whether women should be pushed up the social ladder just because they are women, and thus at a presumed disadvantage. This is rather an insult to women and Margaret Thatcher, for one, would not have agreed. Individuals should be treated as individuals, not as members of a particular race, class or gender. Whatever the historic injustices, this is the only way that social structures can evolve naturally.
Glenn Wilson Visiting Professor of Psychology, Gresham College, London
The Glass Ceiling Delusion attacks head-on the militant feminist myth that men and women have the same interests and capabilities. Reviewing a wide range of evidence, Mike Buchanan shows that the under-representation of women in senior positions in business has nothing to do with discrimination and ‘glass ceilings’, and that attempts to impose quotas are therefore fundamentally flawed. A polemical book with an important message.
Peter Saunders Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Sussex University
The Glass Ceiling Delusion makes a significant counter-argument to the debate about women in boardrooms, and for this reason alone it deserves to be read. Whilst I’m personally too old to enter the fray, I’d nonetheless like to add that every scholarly study I’ve read about women in management during the past fifteen years indicates that successful women have exactly the same characteristics as successful men. All my life I’ve admired successful women as much as successful men and have had the privilege of working for and with many of them. A typical example is the brilliant Diane Thompson of the Camelot Group. Another is Professor Lynette Ryals, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of my own University. Women like this get to the top on sheer talent; they have no need of a ‘gender agenda’.
In this debate, however, we also need to be aware that we need pressure groups to ameliorate deep-seated prejudices in society, but a point is inevitably reached beyond which we must let meritocracy in a free society take over, otherwise we enter the dangerous domain of social engineering. The irony is that Mike Buchanan’s own movement, Campaign for Merit in Business, is also a pressure group. So, whilst I don’t agree with everything he says and does, I believe his book at least deserves to be read and seriously considered, preferably dispassionately.
Malcolm McDonald Emeritus Professor, Cranfield School of Management
The Glass Ceiling Delusion demythologizes each of thirty elements the author has identified of the now generally accepted claim that women are discriminated against in the world of white-collar work. Much has been accomplished recently in disclosing the half-truths about women and domestic violence, for example, but Buchanan illuminates an area that other critics of ideological feminism have not considered. Buchanan’s analysis is based partly on his experience of working as an executive for major British and American multinational corporations for over 30 years until 2010. His book should inspire research on settings of corporate power everywhere. Always witty and sometimes even biting in style, Buchanan’s text is grounded in important texts in psychobiology, sociology, history and politics. It is an impassioned yet not angry argument that deserves the careful attention of policy-makers and a general readership.
Professor Miles Groth PhD Editor, New Male Studies: An International Journal
The Glass Ceiling Delusion is an important and brave book, the best book on social economics and society in general published for decades. It’s irresistibly compelling, cogently argues and superbly put together. It should be in all school and college libraries. It should be compulsory reading for social science, economics and politics students. It should be force-fed to male and female politicians. This is definitely a five-star book. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant.
Dr Vernon Coleman bestselling English author
Mike operates a number of blogs in addition to this one.
Campaign for Merit in Business was launched in 2012, and is concerned with the need for merit to be the sole basis for recruitment and promotion in the workplace, in opposition to the initiatives which seek to ‘improve’ gender diversity in senior executive positions, including in boardrooms, regardless of individual women’s merit compared with their male peers, and regardless of the evidence which clearly demonstrates a causal link between increasing gender diversity on corporate boards, and corporate financial DECLINE. Mike presented that evidence to the House of Commons inquiry ‘Women in the Workplace’ in 2012, the video of the session is here.
The initiatives are anti-meritocratic, they’re inspired and sustained by radical feminist ideology, yet they were supported and largely financed by the Conservative-led coalition (2010-15) and are continuing to this day, with a Conservative government (2019-). It’s known that one of the government’s longer-term targets is gender-balanced boards at FTSE350 companies.
Another blog, that of The Anti-Feminism League, hasn’t being updated since September 2013 as all new posts have been published on this website or the Campaign for Merit in Business website.
His websites include Laughing at Feminists (it’s a civic duty) and Men Shouldn’t Marry.
Mike lives in the beautiful town of Bedford, England. His email address is mike@j4mb.org.uk, his phone number 07967 026163.
Children & Family Party 