Legislation designed to help family life may simply be discouraging employers from taking on and promoting women, a leading Kent businesswoman believes.

Mum-of-three Alyson Howard, director of Pembury-based Meta Corporate Finance, spoke as a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission showed the number of women in the most powerful jobs is falling, with a "concrete ceiling" stopping their rise.

The report, Sex and Power, revealed there are fewer women in top posts in 12 of 25 categories. Professions such as politics, the media, policing and judiciary all fared badly.

Sir Alan Sugar, star of BBC TV's The Apprentice has said employers would be happier to take on women if the law allowed them to ask at interview whether they had immediate plans to start a family or whether they had sorted out proper childcare provision.

Current legislation allows women to take up to 52 weeks maternity leave.

Mrs Howard said: "There has been legislation upon legislation creating rights for working mums which is creating an environment that can act as a disincentive for employers to take on women.

"In my view legislation has gone too far and laws centring on women are scaring some business owners and putting them off hiring and promoting women of child bearing age.

"Of course, nothing excuses dismissing a woman just because she is pregnant, nor paying one less for a similar job to that done by a man just because she is female. We have had that protection for 30 years and it is right.

"But in the last few years we can now see a reversal of the slow improvement in women's career opportunities and success!"

Mrs Howard, who had her own first child at 24, believes ambitious women do well to have babies earlier on in life, for example in their early 20s - and then get back to their careers.

"The reality is in a lot of business they recognise talent in the early 30s and unfortunately that can be when a lot of women are having kids, having delayed having them for a few years."

She is also an advocate of women taking the plunge and setting up their own businesses, which they can gear around their family lives and acts a women's enterprise ambassador for the South East England Development Agency.

"In today's pressured world more women are thinking I'm not going to apply for promotion, I don't want to play that game, I would rather set up my own business."

This year's Sex and Power report is part of the EHRC's 'Working Better' project. Launched in July, the campaign is seeking to identify innovative ways of working which can help meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Nicola Brewer, the Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: "Young women's aspiration is in danger of giving way to frustration. Many of them are now excelling at school and are achieving great things in higher education. And they are keen to balance a family with a rewarding career.

"But workplaces forged in an era of 'stay at home mums' and 'breadwinner dads' are putting too many barriers in the way - resulting in an avoidable loss of talent at the top."

"We always speak of a glass ceiling. These figures reveal that in some cases it appears to be made of reinforced concrete. We need radical change to support those who are doing great work and help those who want to work better and release talent."