They really rev his engines, but as second and third wives, not as activist agitators.

Carl Icahn has nominated 42 people to fill 94 board seats at public companies ranging from EBay Inc. to Herbalife Ltd. in the past five years. Not a single one was a woman...Icahn doesn’t agree with the notion that he hasn’t supported women on boards. “There’s a much bigger picture to consider than only the candidates nominated to seats recently,” he said. “We’ve worked with many, many boards over the years and in a lot of cases supported women on them. In some cases, we fought hard to keep them because they were so capable.”

Icahn, Loeb and Other Activists Overlook Women for Board Seats [Bloomberg via Steven Russolillo]