Companies should not need to be persuaded to give women equal treatment. Talent no more discriminates between the genders than it does with respect to race or creed. Any employer that did so would hobble its ability to hire the best candidate. This is not just bad business but an unfair denial of opportunity.

In a rational world half of senior jobs would go to women. Britain remains a long way from this. Women occupy only a fifth of positions at the level of managing director in the City. It is not just a problem of the financial sector: only 18 per cent of women become a partner in a law firm, less than a third a senior medical consultant and a tenth a university professor.

Opposing discrimination is not the same as pronouncing everyone the same. But this argues for more not less equal treatment. A prominent report on the subject argued that “women bring different perspectives and voices to the table, to the debate and to the decisions”. Studies confirm that diversity is associated with better financial returns. Companies dominated by men suffer a disadvantage, given that half of their customers and staff may be female. They also risk perpetuating a cycle in which an overly male workplace deters women from applying.