Liv Garfield, Chief Executive of the water company Severn Trent, is the youngest woman ever to lead a FTSE 100 company.

She believes it is inevitable that women will rise to senior positions as long as recruitment is based on merit alone.

At Severn Trent the first stages of recruitment exclude information about applicants' backgrounds so that each shortlist is drawn up on merit alone. Since women make up half the population, logic says 50% of the time, the right person for the job will be a woman.