The young women making their way through school and university now, with dreams of progressing in their chosen field, maybe aiming right for the very top, need to know that their aspirations are achievable, that their dreams are not mere fantasies and that routes to the top exist.

We all know about that infamous glass ceiling. But women are also held back behind glass borders too. Eight out of ten people posted overseas are men as organisations tend to discount women as strong candidates for those international assignments that are becoming increasingly important to climbing the career ladder.

Women do need to lean in to their careers. But they need support and self belief to get there in a world where traditional roles of mother/wife/care-giver/household shopper are still manifest.

Diversity in business is a positive move as it brings a wide selection of backgrounds, talents and perspectives to the table. However, introducing a quota system to achieve this could lead to tokenism, a dangerous concept which runs the risk of tainting all women who end up on the board.

Sometimes I wonder if the glass ceiling we should be most worried about smashing is actually the ceiling at home - because the pane that lurks over the bedroom has nothing to do with salary or status...it's about who puts out the bins and worms the dog.

Despite record numbers of women graduating from university and achieving better results than men for the first time, it could be 70 years before we ca...

So women may need a "house husband" if they want to reach the top. At least according to Helena Morrissey, mother of nine (yep, you read that right), who is chief executive of Newton Investment Management.