Powerless to help because you're miles away at the office, and wracked with guilt because you selfishly and determinedly chose your career over full-time motherhood, what do you do?

Former South Yorkshire businesswoman of the Year Jo Haigh was in the middle of a vital meeting when she took such a call from her 12-year-old daughter.

She experienced the gamut of emotions - shock, horror, utter dread and a nauseating tidalwave of guilt. But somehow, she managed not to go into blind panic mode, phone the fire brigade and race home.

The cool head and clever coping mechanisms which had got her to the top of her field kicked in.

Within minutes, the corporate financier had got to the nub of the issue. After a probing Q & A with her child, she realised the raging inferno of her fears was nothing more than a smouldering dressing gown which had got too near an over-heated lightbulb, got the nanny to deal with it - and, to the amazement of impressed colleagues, carried on with her meeting.

"That was nothing - the hardest moment I've ever had to deal with as a working mother was the day the nanny rang to tell me she had dropped my seven-week-old baby on the quarry-tiled floor," says Jo.

"Don't worry - children heal very quickly," she told me.

"That time, I did fly out of the office. I was beside myself with fear and guilt. I tore home, swearing I would never go back to work, never leave my children with a nanny ever again. But my daughter Jessica was fine - so of course, I did go back to work."

Jo is now head of corporate finance for chartered accountants.

Jessica is now 22 and has just completed her masters in magazine journalism at Sheffield University; it is she and her sister who are the main reason for Jo's latest book, Tales From The Glass Ceiling - A survival guide for women in business.

It is a down-to-earth, honest book, a collection of other women's experiences and Jo's sensible advice.

At the peak of her career, Jo wanted to give other women, her daughters amongst them, a guiding hand as they launched themselves into the still male-dominated world of work.

Rather than keep a firm lid on the competition, Jo is actively encouraging it; she firmly believes we need more women at the top. "I want to help swell the numbers of us occupying high-level executive roles," she says.

"Women have made great strides in the business world since the term 'glass ceiling' was coined in the 1980s but undoubtedly it does still exist, even in this enlightened age," she says.

"Only five per cent of all directors in the UK's FTSE 100 companies are female. And if you do reach such high echelons, don't expect to be paid the same.

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