It was as she trawled through the budget of a department that she had taken over to cover for a male colleague that Liz Pullen, a regional manager for a waste disposal company, discovered she was being paid 25 per cent less than her male counterparts.

“I looked through the budgets to see how to accommodate his area into mine, when I became aware how much more other directors were being paid,” she said. “I was disillusioned and very annoyed that I was paid less, but I made the assumption that it was a mistake, and took it to my manager. He said he’d look into it, and I got £2,000 extra after peer review.”

But Ms Pullen, who by this stage controlled a budget of more than £20 million a year and managed a staff of 400 for Onyx, was still £11,000 behind male colleagues in the same position.

She had quickly risen to take charge of 11 contracts with councils after being headhunted by Onyx from local government. “I was quite good — actually very good — at my job,” she said.

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The final straw came when she was made redundant the day before leaving on holiday and returned to find that two male colleagues had received double the severance pay that she received. She took her former employer to an employment tribunal.

She said: “That was when the sexism kicked in. I received six months’ severance pay and they both got a year. They thought I was younger than one of the men. I said to my solicitor at the tribunal that, flattering as it was, I was actually the same age.”

The Equal Opportunities Commission funded some of her costs, and the tribunal found in her favour concerning equal pay, sex discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Ms Pullen, 50, has returned to work in local government.

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