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Glass ceilings have been much in the news recently. The Equality and Human Rights Commission's Sex and Power report, published in September, revealed that in the UK the number of women in top jobs is declining. In the same week, the apotheosis of the new vice-presidential hopeful made a lot of women feel even more inadequate.

As journalist Rachel Johnson wrote "By 7am, Sarah Palin would have already had a baby, disembowelled a moose, jogged six miles, electri per centied the free world and had sex with her husband.". However, Ms Johnson, no underachiever herself - even if brother Boris does get more of the headlines - also reminds us that women living in countries where the law protects their rights can do pretty much what they want, if they have the drive.

I am well aware that in any discussion on women and work, you are damned if you do champion the cause of women and damned if you do not. But the recent headlines and research into the state of our own industry have prompted me to take stock. How are we doing?

In the red corner, championing the need for intervention, here are some facts. The FSSC’s Sector Skills Agreement for financial services in England showed that, although women make up more than 50 per cent of the overall workforce, there is a far smaller proportion of women at more senior levels. Almost three out of every four, or 72 per cent, women in the industry are in administrative, sales or customer service roles. By contrast, less than one in three of all managers and proprietors, and barely one in every eight professionals and technical staff, is a woman. While the situation is a little more encouraging in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the general pattern is the same. And the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings suggests that women in financial services earn much less than their male counterparts.

The position of women in financial services is considered sufficiently below par to allow the FSSC to offer special initiatives to women under equalities legislation, since there is clear evidence of gender imbalance at higher levels of the industry. For example, we have just won funding to support a new training programme, Through the Glass Ceiling: Training and Personal Coaching for Senior Women, designed to help senior women in financial services and accountancy to maximise their career potential. We also endorse the Women in the City Achievement Award for Financial Services.

In the blue corner, against special pleading, I stand with my fellow director Sam Rees-Adams, who said: "Do you think a woman wants to think she is got the job because she is a woman, or because she’s the best candidate for the job? I can only speak for myself but I would plump for the latter every time.” She was writing on Girl Power on the FSSC's online discussion board. A number of women who contributed to the discussion both online and at our conference took a similar view. And one of our sector's best-known women, Nicola Horlick, has said that she had never experienced any discrimination or glass ceiling. However, she does point out the playing field starts to wobble when you have children because "in Britain, childcare provision simply is not good enough".

I also wonder how often women unwittingly construct their own glass ceilings. Part of the reason for our coaching pilot is to help delegates assess where limitations on their advancement might be self-imposed.

Before the howls of protest start, I am aware that I have advantages. I started academic life in the non-girly world of plant bio-technology; as far as I am aware, I have never been discriminated against on the basis of gender; and, as I am 5 ft 11, perhaps the anti-women brigade, like all bullies, decided to go for an easier target. There are no easy answers. It is a tough industry and everybody needs to be resilient. If you are in a senior job, you have to accept that it is not going to be 9am to 5pm. People who want to succeed have to make sacrifices. And plenty of women and men do just that. That said, there are boundaries: employment laws may not be all-conquering, but remember that they are at least there.

And while any special treatment for women alone needs to be handled with care, I am all in favour of special initiatives that support the particular development needs of women or men. The important thing is to recruit from the widest possible pool of applicants and to keep talent in the industry. The UK is one of the world's leading financial centres and if we want to keep it that way, we must ensure we have the best possible people. That means ensuring that we do not inadvertently alienate talented people, or lose them, simply because we refuse to be flexible. As Ms Rees-Adams said in her blog: "The more people we attract, the more choice we have. The more choice we have, the better the chances of finding the perfect person for the job. If your recruitment pool is unrepresentative, you are missing out on huge potential."

Why take the risk?

Teresa Sayers is chief executive of the Financial Services Skills Council