The age of equality is already upon us argues one influential City female…

Nichola Pease, deputy chairman and former chief executive of a division of Credit Suisse Group AG told the Commons Treasury Select Committee that onerous legislation designed to protect women’s rights has had the opposite effect.

She said companies are scared away from hiring women because penalties for successful sex discrimination claims are unlimited and the U.K. offers 52 weeks of maternity leave – compared with 12 weeks in the U.S.for example.

“A year maternity leave is too long, and sex discrimination claims that run into 10s of millions of pounds are ridiculous,” Pease told the Treasury Committee.

“What I worry about is that legislation and protection turns this into a nightmare,” Pease said. “We’ve got to be realistic and make sure the protection, which has very good motivation, doesn’t end up backfiring both at a female level and at a U.K. competitiveness level.”

“I would love to give everyone flexible working parctices — but there are certain jobs [in the City] which have unsociable hours — conference calls at various times to accommodate the global nature of business. There is a lot of travel. Those are the commercial realities.”

“Please don’t legislate. Sex discrimination is not significant in the financial community.”

By all accounts, this is coming from someone who has acheived great success in the London’s financial centre – Nichola Pease and her husband have been nicknamed “the Posh and Becks of the City” and it’s not for their affiliation to a girl group or football.