Female IT contractors may still find that gender discrimination is rife in the workplace, according to a female career development firm.

Piya Khanna, executive coach at Change to Succeed, said even with equality legislation in place, many women still feel there is a bias towards men in all kinds of business sectors.

"Some statistics estimate that about 72 per cent of women workers have experienced sexist behaviour including bullying at work, while 85 per cent of women workers believe that there is a bias towards men in their workplaces," she commented.

Ms Khanna went on to say that this discrimination is not always intentional or deliberate, but sometimes people are not aware of what constitutes unfair treatment.

According to a study by Cranfield School of Management, the number of female executives in the UK's 100 leading firms has remained nearly unchanged for three years, with women accounting for around 12 per cent of board members.