Why an all female cabinet flies in the face of the principles of true inclusion

This week, Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP proposed that an all-women 'emergency cabinet', be formed with the objective of trying to stop a no-deal Brexit. Writing in the Guardian Newspaper Lucas suggested that this all women cabinet could 'press the pause button', and offer the British people another referendum.

As someone who voted to Remain in the 2016 referendum the idea of leaving, never-mind a no-deal Brexit fills me with dread.

However, as someone who has worked in the field of inclusion management for the last 20 years, I have to say that Lucas's all women no-deal Brexit cabinet idea is fundamentally flawed, for three basic reasons:

1. It's sexist! I - along with many other men and women - have spent the last two decades pushing the principles of feminism. (Of which I consider myself one). For me feminism is about breaking through the barriers that women face; this includes fair and equal representation in the corridors of power in business and politics. Representation of different voices is critical as it leads to more inclusive decision-making. What inclusive representation doesn't mean is making an assumption that all women think the same and by definition we should exclude other groups from the decision-making process - in this case men. As suggested by the International Trade Secretary Liz Truss (not someone I often agree with) "Is there anything more sexist than claiming your gender determines your worldview/behaviour/attitude?" It's very clear from the Brexit debates, that it does not have a gender dimension. Indeed one of key leaders of the 2016 campaign was the ex-Labour MP, Gisela Stuart.
2. It's exclusively White. Without questions Lucas's brand of feminism is white and elitist. How could she have 'forgotten' to include black females from across the political divide in her list of possible participants? What world does Lucas live in, in where black women are not even within her frame of reference? Isn't this an example of the kind of white privilege that Lucas has previously criticised?
3. It goes against the science of diversity: Research by organisations such as Boston Consulting Group and Cloverpop have shown how diverse groups of individuals help to avoid the pitfalls of Groupthink and move towards teams of innovators and ideas creators. But simply replacing a bunch of white men who all think the same with a bunch of white women who all think the same fundamentally goes against the science of diversity. What is required, if we want an alternative world view, is two-dimensional diversity, that of representation and that of different thinking styles and world views.

My main concern here is that Lucas's idea is driven by a mis-guided identity politics, which is itself one of the driving forces of Brexit and the politics of Donald Trump. It fuels the 'what about me' question from men and other groups. Rather than creating more divides, what we need, in words of Bell Hooks, is an alliance politics of diverse voices. Lucas needs to think again.