Carolyn McCall

"It has a lot to do with how connected they feel and if there is a real flexible working opportunity. Women do have to ask and companies have to listen – if they remain rigid about how they see this world, they will lose women,”"

"Companies also have a role, as do leaders in organisations, to ensure you have a culture where you can speak up about it. Men in management have a very important role to play."

"We talk about generational changes, attitudes to work and the concept of a ‘worklife balance’. It isn’t just women who want change, and it isn’t always about parenthood, she suggests. “Men in their 30s and 40s have a very different attitude to work than their fathers. It’s much more about not letting one thing dominate [your life].”"

"Women must be willing to say: ‘I am good at what I do and this is how you’d have to act to keep me,’"

"“It is much harder being a leader when it’s tougher than when you were just rising. Leading in a variable environment means absorbing a lot of the uncertainty. It’s about being honest with what you say – and what you don’t say.”"