Abstract

In Allison Pearson’s funny-sad best-selling novel I Don’t Know How She Does It, the main character, Kate Reddy, a mother of two and an investment fund manager for the firm EMF, is assigned “a final [sales presentation] for a $300 million ethical pension fund account” in America. She is informed, “They want us to field a team that reflects EMF’s commitment to diversity. . . . So I reckon that’s gotta be you, Kate, and the Chinky (the newly appointed Momo) from research” (Pearson 2002, 123). Later, Kate tells the reader, “And of course I told Momo . . . how to compare screening criteria, and a dozen other things, but it was like asking a skate-boarder to dock a space station” (130). At the final a question is raised: “Ms. Reddy, New Jersey has recently signed up to the McMahon Principles. Would that be a problem for your asset collection?” (154). Kate has never heard of the principles. A would-be lover at the meeting comes to the rescue: “I think we can feel confident . . . that with Ms. Reddy’s wide experience of ethical funds she would be up to speed with employment practices of companies in Ireland.” Kate capitalizes on the situation, commenting: “As Mr. Abelhammer says, we have a team that screens for employment policies. On a personal note, I’d like to add I am fully behind the McMahon Principles, being Irish my-self”—a half-truth (155).