We broke through the glass ceiling: now show us the money

On the one hand, we're being promoted faster than ever. On the other, our salaries lag criminally behind those of men. To make matters worse, 35 per cent of us are paying thousands for IVF - a direct consequence of putting work before babies.

Confronted with figures like these it is hard to remember why we dedicated so much time to our employers - all the while jeopardising our fertility. You'll forgive us 37-year-olds for feeling a tad cheated.

We've long known the issues of fertility and pay are linked, it's just that our heads remain in the sand over what to do. Some women lose because they take time out to raise children, but a more insidious explanation is that we're undervalued in the first place by cynical bosses who assume we'll drop them in it when the biological alarm sounds. Factor in the old patriarchal notion that men are the breadwinners, so deserve a larger pay cheque, plus the annoying truth that men get more money simply because they ask, and you start to think nothing's changed.

But that's not entirely true. The glass ceiling has been replaced with a glass elevator - whisking women into senior positions five years ahead of our male peers. But this apparent advantage has a downside. To employers, younger and female also equals cheaper. And frankly, my generation of women still isn't comfortable fighting for higher pay.

We have good reason. The only time I've asked for a pay rise - the amount I knew was budgeted for the position - management were incensed. My company calculated that at my tender age I'd be more grateful for the opportunity than the modest going rate. I dug my heels in and won, but it soured relations. So I wasn't surprised by research that found women who demand pay rises are considered pushy, while men earn respect along with their raise.

Old-fashioned attitudes aren't the only problem. The system is deliberately rigged against us. Modern HR departments are practised at manipulating job titles and hierarchies to get round pay-related labour laws. A friend who sneaked a look at a colleague's payslip was shocked to see he took home £10,000 more than her. When she raised this a personnel manager hastily outlined an invisible workplace structure that somehow placed them in non-comparable roles, even though their jobs were virtually identical. And a female-dominated company I once worked for was busy trying to double the service length before maternity rights kicked in. So much for female solidarity.

Nothing will change the fact that the crucial career-building years coincide with the optimum time to have children. But by delaying childbirth we've surely made our sacrifice, and companies reap the rewards. All we need now is the guts to tell them what we're worth and make sure they cough up. At least it'll pay for the IVF.