However, in the United Kingdom there is a dramatic decline in the number of top female executives.

The Guardian reports that women are jumping off the career ladder long before they hit the glass ceiling, largely because of rising childcare costs and inflexible work hours required in big firms.

An analysis of the number of women in senior management positions in the 350 biggest companies listed on the stock market in Britain shows a dramatic fall in the last five years.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, which commissioned the research, believes the increasing cost of childcare and a new-found entrepreneurial streak may be among the factors for a 40-per-cent fall in women holding senior management positions. Women in the UK are exiting the corporate life.

In recent years there have been repeated attempts to encourage women to remain at work, but successive reports show that this does not appear to be happening.

The Equal Opportunities Commission has also found that 6,000 women are missing from top slots and reckons a lack of flexibility may be driving women towards forming their own firms. They apparently found it hard to juggle their time  between the corporate world and domestic life.

In contrast, the number of self-employed women has increased. For the first time, there are one million self-employed women in the workplace, and the number of self-employed women has risen by 18 per cent in five years.

Inflexible work hours aside, some women have chosen to leave the workplace to take care of their children as the cost of childcare in the UK rises. The cost of a typical nursery place in England has risen 27 per cent in the past five years.

When it comes down to it, women can't have it all, in spite of the campaign to promote equality in the workplace. Comes the moment of choice between domestic life and the corporate world, there's no easy answer.

Jeerawat@nationgroup.com