At school, girls feel as though they have something to prove and this continues into their working lives, two high-profile females have asserted.

Television presenter Konnie Huq and This Morning agony aunt Denise Robertson suggest that girls are less confident about succeeding in their school exams and this nervousness often continues into their working lives.

About the issue, Ms Huq stated: "I do feel that women are often perceived as much more conscientious than their male counterparts. It stems back to when there weren’t women in the work place and that’s a couple of generations [ago] really."

She went on to say that equality is a "relatively new phenomenon" and so women feel they have to live up to it.

Research conducted recently by Sky Learning suggested that boys are more confident about doing well in their GCSE exams, with only 29 per cent of those questioned reporting being worried they had not done enough revision, compared to 43 per cent of girls.