Pansy Ho, managing director of Shun Tak Holdings, urged women not be afraid of their own power: “Instead of controlling and constraining our abilities, we need to learn how to utilise them to achieve not just for ourselves but also for our wider communities.”

Chadatip Chutrakul, chief executive officer of Siam Piwat Co, said: “Thai women are lucky, because we don’t have the gender issue.

“I believe whatever we do, it’s up to us to prove ourselves.”

Miriam Yeung, a celebrated actress and singer, said she put her success down to “a mix of commitment, persistence and courage”.

“I believe nothing is impossible. I will never give up my career. There will always be a way,” she said.

Christine Loh, undersecretary for the environment of the Hong Kong government, told the gathering that no one had to do anything, “but remember, whatever you choose to do, you have to do it very well”. “It’s important to be adaptive. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow, and that could be great learning opportunity.”

Dianna Lee, group CEO at Country Heights Holdings, Malaysia, devoted her words to the importance of hard work, adding that it was now important that all women work to change workplace perceptions, by making sure everything they do is result-driven.

“As long as you can deliver, you are a good worker,” she said.

Jing Ulrich, vice chairwoman for Asia-Pacific at JPMorgan Chase & Co, underlined that for younger women, the key was “having faith in yourself and finding what you love to do”.

“For me, success is about passion, perseverance and confidence.”

Benedicte Nolens, head of risk and strategy at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, said: “Women are equal to men, until they need to have babies.”

She added that she believed females needed to find a solid work-life balance to achieve success.

“I turned to other women in the finance community. Together we have a supportive network and it allowed me to get over a challenging career period while combining work with raising two young children.”

Rebecca Brosnan, head of product development at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, told the audience that 30 per cent of married Hong Kong women left the workforce to have children, look after ageing parents or take care of other family obligations.

“If woman are cut off midway [through their careers], it’s really difficult to get back.”

She said the Hong Kong bourse ran what it calls its Back to Work Programme for women, which is now in its third year, and “I would encourage all talented females to go back to work”.