That was the message from former Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimons at the ITT conference, who urged delegates to sponsor females within their businesses.

“The more diverse your executive board, the better,” she said. “You’ve got to grasp the talent. Sponsor a woman, otherwise you will lose her.”

It came as Fitzsimons, who is chief executive of the Pipeline, which offers training to encourage women into senior roles, revealed the low number of women in senior positions in business.

Out of 2038 published FTSE350 exec committee places, just 6% of P&L positions are held by females, she said.

“Women are good enough to be better than 6%. Every single FTSE company that has women on the executive committee has 5.6% better capital returns than those that don’t have women.

“If you can put women in a position of power in the organisation, then you can put money on the bottom line,” she added.