It's well known that all men like steam trains, hot curries and comedy socks, while every woman yearns for shoes, James Blunt and chocolates. Given these yawning gaps between the sexes, one can confidently predict that at work the ladies will want different things from their employers. On-site heel bars, for example, piped Blunt and tax breaks on KitKats.

But what’s this? A small voice of opposition: Donna Miller, the European HR director for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, holds a radical point of view – namely, that women, by and large, seek similar employment packages to men.

“I think that women and men want the same thing,” says Miller. “And everyone wants transparent promotion policies and equal pay opportunities – that is something we deliver on at Enterprise.”

Does a male HR chief have a different perspective? Not Nick Smith, the head of diversity and inclusion at RWE npower, the energy company. He agrees that generally differences between men and women are not manifest in what they expect from employers. “They want a company that recognises people’s value and gives them the opportunity to develop themselves in the right sort of climate.”

Listening to staff provides the evidence to back the theory that in this respect at least the battle of the sexes is a phoney war. Enterprise, for example, conducts a biannual employee opinion survey, which confirms that women have much the same on their workplace wish lists as men.

PepsiCo UK and Ireland also asks what its female employees want. Larissa Harrison, the company’s HR director, says: “Our executive female feedback survey and focus groups are examples of a monitoring process specifically targeted at women. Once we’ve gained our insights we then feed them back into our training programmes, work plans and ongoing initiatives. This way, we ensure that our culture reflects the aspirations of our people – just as it should.”

But within the broad consensus that being valued and encouraged to develop are priorities for both sexes, there are differences in the detail. John Last, the head of diversity at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), spells out how flexible working practices can be tailored – term-time working, for example, or a choice of benefits, including childcare and shopping vouchers.

“By taking this approach and listening to our women we are able to help them to balance their work and personal commitments,” he says.

Flexible maternity support is an attractive benefit for many women. As well as a phased return to work on full pay for new mums, Enterprise offers adoption leave and assistance with adoption expenses. RBS has an externally-provided support service to help staff through problems with childcare, for example.

The payback for companies that offer choice over benefits and working practices is greater staff satisfaction. Last says that RBS women who opt for three or more flexible benefit choices are more engaged with their work and more likely to stay with the company.

So what women want is supportive managers who offer career development opportunities within a flexible package. Just like men. Amazing.

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