Until late March 2000, Carol Galley was the highest paid female in the country and, according to the magazine Management Today, Britain’s most powerful woman. As joint chief executive of Merrill Lynch Investment, she controlled an investment portfolio worth £400 billion and had a reputation for chilly efficiency and ruthless boardroom tactics. Such was the awe she inspired that she was awarded the nickname, ‘The Ice Maiden’, and businessmen were said to quake if she even so much as blinked in their direction. Then she decided to quit.

The newspapers went wild. ‘The Ice Maiden Melteth’, announced the Telegraph in bold. At the age of 52, Galley was saying she wanted to dedicate more of her time to just having ‘fun’. ‘It’s been a very demanding role and I am looking forward to having a much more balanced lifestyle,’ she announced.

Galley is not the first woman to have cited a personal desire for more time and space as the reason for leaving a well-paid job. One of the most famous examples is that of Penny Hughes, the former President of Coca Cola UK, who seemed destined for an even greater role in the company’s global empire. Seven years ago Hughes tendered her resignation with the excuse that she wanted to spend more time with her two young sons. The ensuing tabloid joy is understandable. After all, it just went to prove what they had been espousing for years: a woman may have a keen brain for business, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty, biology and her nesting instinct will win the day.

‘I always thought I could do what I call the brain part of the job,’ said Hughes in a recent interview. ‘But the managerial part, the inspiring leadership, really requires emotion, and I suppose that’s what I wanted to put into the family and I just knew I couldn’t mix the two. By the time I had my first boy, Alex, I was 35. I purposely kept going with my career in order to reach my potential. I suppose my husband and I put off having a family until I had reached that stage.’

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