And working on the provision and tax treatment of childcare costs to cover the reality of most working women’s lives would be a huge bonus, especially since many women with a useful contribution to make to business also realise that they need to see their kids at the dinner table every night if they are going to grow responsible balanced contributing adults.

If you really want to understand the reality for isolated female Directors you could do worse than listen to Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia (No personal affiliation – just admiration!) an organisation for high-growth, high-potential women led start-ups based in Silicon Valley. Her research is a blood chilling verdict on any supposed ‘progress’ made since the time when women resigned their job the moment they got married.

The practical problems associated with holding a senior position is both real and tricky to manage. But women, being creative beasts, find all manner of ways to solve these problems in the absence of a fair playing field or parity on tax treatment.

However, women still chose to walk away, in huge numbers, on the way to senior positions in law firms, accountancy firms and business – why?

My suspicion is that the reason is less to do with tax treatment, working hours or childcare and more do to with personal values.

As a women rises through the ranks of an organisation her values and beliefs get increasing challenged, her ability to continue to do the work she loves, is increasingly compromised by the demands made on her as a senior figure in the organisation. The reality is that businesses set up by men, for men, are no place for women with a well established set of values.

The real challenge for those employing women, is to work out how to enable a women to identify and hold her values whilst rising through the ranks, thus facilitating her continued contribution and holding her knowledge within the business.

The much more common and insidious scenario, when female values are being compromised, can be spotted when we hear female employees asking, “Why isn’t my employer giving me what I want?” and when the employer is heard saying, “We think she can deliver more, why isn’t she?”

Consulting Women http://www.consultingwomen.co.uk (to which I do have an allegiance) work with those who want to resolve this conundrum of promotion or compromise. We work employers and employees because we believe that more women in the Boardroom will benefit everyone.