On March 8 the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the world will be recognised and celebrated. Despite the many successes of women in the workplace and the leaps we have taken to earn our place as equals on business leadership teams, there is still work to be done.

The benefits of increasing the number of women in leadership positions have been well documented: MSCI found that companies with strong female leadership had higher return on equity (ROE) than companies without, as well as a superior price-to-book ratio. DDI found that in companies in the top 20 per cent of financial performance, 37 per cent of their leaders were women, compared with 19 per cent female leaders for companies in the bottom 20 per cent.