“If we are serious about tackling the gender pay gap then we have to do more than publish data – we have to show we’re watching what happens next,” said Creasy. The MPs are also asking women to complete and share the #PayMeToo survey, which they say “will help inform our debates on parliament about how to address these issues”. The survey was a simple way for women to reveal issues in their workplaces in confidence, added Creasy, who said that in her first job after university she discovered she was being paid less than a male colleague of the same age and experience.

“We should all know very well that it is against the law not to appoint a woman because she is pregnant or might become pregnant. Yet we also know women routinely get asked questions around family planning in interviews,” she said. “It’s clear that many employers need more support to better understand the basics of discrimination law and the rights of pregnant women and new mothers.” The survey also found that 44% of employers believed women should work for an organisation for at least a year before deciding to have children, while the same number said women who had more than one pregnancy while in the same job could be a “burden to their team”.

Asked whether she supported quotas in industries dominated by men, she warned that women promoted during quota periods could suffer because of positive discrimination. “For every single rank promotion I’ve got I have been told, every single time, that I’m going to get the job because I’m the only woman on the panel – even the job I’ve got now. Which is quite bizarre, really,” she said.

“I think 2017 has been a watershed year for women’s cricket in the UK,” says Clare Connor, director of women’s cricket at the England Cricket Board (ECB). “The sight of a sold-out Lord’s is something that will stick with everyone who was there for a lifetime – and the winning moment was truly special.”

In this small nation, there is a near-unquestioned conviction based on decades of evidence that electing women to positions of power benefits women and families. And at a time when American women, galvanized by the election of Donald Trump, are showing unprecedented interest in entering the political arena themselves, Iceland can provide both a roadmap and a promise for what’s possible. Iceland’s lesson for America is clear: When women win elections, everyone wins.

According to a recent OECD report, it’s the only country in the developed world where fathers spend more time with school-aged children than mothers, to the tune of eight minutes a day. The Global Gender Gap report rated Finland the second most equal country in the world in 2016, and the Economist recently rated it the third best country to be a working mom.

Gender rights campaigners said the data highlighted a “national scandal” created by the same power imbalance that allowed sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. They warned that the UK was going backwards in addressing the issue, with the gulf widening for young women.

Her stature may have taken a hit after the recent German elections, in which she won a fourth term as chancellor with diminished authority, but Angela Merkel remains the most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbes. Merkel has topped the Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women for the seventh consecutive year, and for the 12th time in total.