Is Disney’s first female chair a Marvel superhero of diversity or just another corporate drone?

The entertainment giant has a substantial gender pay gap in the UK, faces a lawsuit over equal pay in the US, and has taken heat over the treatment of low-paid staff. Will Susan Arnold use her position to address these issues, asks James Moore

Should Disney’s new chair line up with the Eternals? The company’s low-paid workers may end up disappointed (Marvel Studios)

The company that gave us the modern pop culture princess – from Snow White to Anna & Elsa – has finally crowned a woman as chair of the board in the form of Susan Arnold. Or rather, as chair of the board. That’s how Disney’s announcement describes the role.

The entertainment giant’s investor relations site is, appropriately enough, currently decorated with a still from Eternals, the Marvel movie which has done better with audiences than it did with critics.

Although it boasts an admirably diverse ensemble cast, it is a female-led film. If you read Disney’s announcement of Arnold’s appointment, you’ll see that its real flaw was not including her alongside Sersi, Sprite, Makkari and Ajak.

It makes Arnold out to be a mix of all four of them. “An incredibly esteemed executive” with “a wealth of experience, unwavering integrity, and expert judgment”. Now, where’s the cape?

Of course, this is par for the course for any senior appointment, whatever the successful candidate’s gender, or race for that matter.

Business leaders like being garlanded with great heaps of flowery praise almost as much as they like seven- or eight-figure annual salaries.

Ms Arnold isn’t the CEO, of course. As chairman – she will replace Bob Iger in the role – she’ll run the board, not the company. Disney hasn’t yet allowed a woman to do that job.

But it’s still an important hire. A milestone reached. Another chip in the glass ceiling.

It could also reduce the firm’s gender pay gap in the US. By a bit, anyway. We don’t know what that might be because it isn’t published.

However, the mean average salary for men working for Walt Disney UK – reporting is mandatory here – is 21.9 per cent higher for men than it is for women.

When you consider the median average, which looks at salaries in the middle of the range, and thus reduces the influence of the very high salaries paid to top execs, which inevitably push up the mean, the gap is still 11.6 per cent.

For Disney Stores, the same figures are 16.3 per cent and 11.5 per cent.

The mean average bonus gap, however, is quite stunning: some 51.2 per cent for Disney UK, 53 per cent for Disney Stores.

Disney is a global entertainment company, with global operations. If those figures are reflected throughout the organisation, then it has an awful lot of work to do.

There are signs that might be the case: in the US, Disney is being sued by a group of women for “rampant pay discrimination” although it should be said that Disney has pushed back against the claim.

While inclusive films like Chloe Zhao’s superhero epic are welcome, inclusive companies would be better still.

Disney has a way to go there. That’s certainly the view of Dr Maja Korica, from the Warwick Business School, who said Arnold’s appointment was “important” but questioned whether it was of more than symbolic value.

“Whether this necessarily translates into better governance or broader equity within the firm remains to be seen,” she said.

Korica pointed to the pay gap as evidence for her argument that “Disney as a whole remains a gender- and race-unequal employer”.

“Unless her priorities as chair support greater equity for Disney employees at all levels, her personal success as a woman will remain just that – personal and so inherently limited.”

It is hard to argue with that. I’ve spoken to Frances O’Grady, the boss of the TUC, on this subject. She too has told me that getting more women into the boardroom is important but she wants to see improvements for women across the piste. Especially for those working at places like Disney’s stores and theme parks, where it sometimes seems employees need superpowers just to survive on the wages they’re offered.

If I was on the Disney appointments committee – and give it a rest with the “in your dreams” comments please – I’d have been pushing the name of Abigail Disney.

The filmmaker, and descendent of the founder, is an outspoken member of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of very wealthy individuals who advocate for higher taxes on themselves and people like them.

She’s also highlighted the difficulties faced by Disney’s lower-paid workers, and called for them to receive better wages and treatment.

Abi Disney is the real Eternal here. But Wall Street would have a fit at the mere suggestion of installing her in any position of seniority at the company bearing her name, let alone making her the chairman.

So we’re left with Ms Arnold to fly the flag. Maybe. It doesn’t look as if Korica is holding her breath for that actually happening. I can’t say that I blame her.