It’s rare a month goes by without some survey reporting that girls are better than boys, or vice versa. To save the pain of enduring any more of this nonsense, shall we call it evens?

It’s rare a month goes by without some survey reporting that girls are better than boys, or vice versa. To save the pain of enduring any more of this nonsense, shall we call it evens?

Let’s assume that we all start out equally smart but that social conditioning - be it at home, school or at work - is what separates the men from the boys, and the boys’ huge salaries from the girls’.

Studies of gender performance in school broadly conclude that girls take the academic part a bit more seriously, resulting in higher grades, while boys focus on building the foundations to what will become a life-long obsession with sport.

As far as CVs go, girls are ahead at 18. So why do women still earn less, why is there a dearth of women in the boardroom and should legislation fix it?

As a liberal woman who made it to the boardroom through tenacity, hard work and by hiring great people, I would have hated to have got here just because the business needed to meet Government quotas.

So my natural reaction is to reject them. The 30% Club, which champions boardroom diversity, presents a number of compelling stats that show that when you have a diverse range of backgrounds and experience in your senior executive team, your business will make more money. As a minimum I would expect those that make the strategic decisions in any retail business to be representative of their customers: they need to have walked in their shoes.

Now, I know that there are some brilliant people at Gala Coral but I was also surprised to read that, despite their bingo halls being full of women, there aren’t any on its board.

Of course, companies like that recruit based on talent and skills but most people also, subconsciously or otherwise, recruit people like themselves. And so the circle continues. This isn’t about quotas or equality it’s about common sense.

There are of course others factors, and confidence is one.

I loved Lucy Neville-Rolfe’s quote in Retail Week, that “men always think they’re ready for a job a year before they are, while women think they’re ready a year after”.

But the solutions are the same.

Start mentoring your smartest women, demand more Government support for mothers and employ more people from differing backgrounds that better reflect your customers.

It’s got to be preferable to being asked to do so by law. And that would be a shame because the only quotas I’d endorse would be in the bedroom - and only then if they were higher for everyone.

  • Jacqueline Gold is the chief executive of Ann Summers