Erikka Askeland: Sisters are still doing it for themselves

This is fitting because it is women who made Ms Blakely – who has in turn made her fortune by making the underclothing which, increasingly, makes the woman.

If you have not heard of her invention, Spanx, a smoothing undergarment women of a certain age swear by, then perhaps you are better off not knowing. But if you wish to persist in asking, I can report that Spanx are essentially corsets for the modern age, made of thick nylon that stretches from above the knee to midway on the rib cage. Once they are on it is possible to feel comfortable, particularly in the knowledge that any wobbly bits are encased firmly, like a sausage, while still being able to breathe if not eat a full three-course meal. The only awkward moments they provide comes in the donning of the garment, an ungainly process which is probably best not witnessed by anyone of a faint disposition.

Forbes says Blakely is one of just a handful of women who have made fortunes without having inherited it from fathers or husbands. Which, if money is the final arbiter of equality, demonstrates some sort of progress. Yet it is interesting that of her tiny cohort of ultra-rich peers, it is the female market that has largely been the source of their success.

These include Oprah Winfrey, who parlayed a successful acting career into becoming a broadcasting mogul by targeting a female audience. And while fellow billionaire and chief executive of HP, Meg Whitman, has had a more diverse career, making her money by turning the website eBay into a global marketplace, her early success can be credited to stints market ing toys such as Mr Potato Head.

These are some of the women who have got to the top of the money tree through merit, which, if you are keeping up with the debate about having more women running big British companies, is a sticking point. There are women who argue that, if the government forces companies to have more than just white blokes in the board room, it is “patronising”, and will mean women who get there didn’t actually deserve it.

Yet opinion seems to be turning, particularly after Norway brought in quotas and the sky didn’t fall there. Nor has there been much improvement in the numbers since Lord Davies suggested at least 25 per cent of the people running UK companies should be female.

And it is not just the top echelons where disparities exist either. According to a Grant Thornton survey, the number of women in senior management roles in the UK fell last year from 23 per cent to 20 per cent.

Yet this problem does not exist for Ms Blakely, who in building her vastly successful enterprise did not look to others (i.e. men) to borrow money or advertise. Of her 125 employees, 16 are men. Yet the question needs to be asked whether she is still in a sort of feminine ghetto, along with other rich businesswomen such as Michelle Mone, who thrive in markets, such as underwear, where most of the buyers are themselves women.

International Women’s Day, instituted just over 100 years ago, passed without too much fanfare this week. Some argue that IWD itself is patronising, but I’m not so sure.

This year, the German tabloid Bild took the editorial decision to remove pictures of naked women from the front cover – although it will continue to run them inside its pages. It was a far cry from when female workers took to the streets “for bread and peace” on IWD in 1917 and kicked off the Russian revolution.

At Holyrood today, a body called the Scottish Women’s Convention is holding what is sure to be a well-mannered event for IWD. One of their recent events focused on why women should vote, which seems only about 84 years behind the campaign which brought universal UK suffrage . We’ve come a long way, but there is still further to go.