James Moore: British businesswomen at the top? Not really

Outlook It seems that Britain's businesswomen are doing rather well, at least if Fortune magazine is to be believed.

The august journal has produced a list of the top 50 businesswomen outside of the US, and guess what? Nine of them are based here.

See, we told you so, the CBI will say. Now let that be an end to all the talk about sexism in the boardroom and forget about those silly measures to enforce better gender equality at the top of our top companies.

Ah, but there's a catch. Before the CBI starts celebrating, it's worth looking at the nationalities of those nine businesswomen.

There are four North Americans, headed by Anglo American's chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, together with one apiece from France, Spain and Italy. Which says it all really.

Oh, and about the two Britons. EasyJet's Carolyn McCall was actually born in Bangalore.