Sarah Vince-Cain describes herself as a child of the Eighties, brought up in the age of “hard work, power suits and Margaret Thatcher”, and felt guilty about taking time off to start a family.

“I wondered if I was being a bit of a nuisance by having a child,” she said.

A few months after giving birth to her second child and taking her second period of maternity leave in three years she was told in 2001 that she was being made redundant as a senior manager at the Giorgio Armani group. In the dispute that followed, she won about £120,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination.

“I was lucky,” she said, “I had insurance for my legal costs of £50,000. I’m not sure anyone would risk that sort of money of their own.”

Mrs Vince-Cain, 39, who lives in Manchester, said that after having her first child in 1998 and taking three months’ maternity leave, she felt increasingly marginalised in her job and that responsibility was ebbing from her. This became worse after a second period of maternity leave. A few months later she lost her job.

“The erosion of my responsibilities continued after returning to work,” she said. “My duties were now little more than a store manager of the smallest store of the company when, formally, I was a regional manager for all stores outside London.”

The final straw came, she says, when she was humiliated by one of her bosses in front of other store managers and her subordinates during a meeting in London.

“I knew that as I sent my grievance letter I was sealing my fate,” she said.

She took her case to an employment tribunal, which found that she had suffered sex discrimination and been unfairly dismissed. The company appealed against the verdict several times and the case reached the High Court. She won at every stage.

“The compensation was what I would have earned anyway; it’s the vindication I received from the court that matters,” she said.

She retrained as a dietitian and now works for Manchester Primary Care Trust.

Despite her experience, she says she has a degree of sympathy about the burden maternity leave imposes on employers.

“There was no one around me that was making me feel guilty for taking leave. Because of the way I had been brought up, I was battling with the guilt a bit myself.”

But she maintains that women should take up their rights to take the leave that is now enshrined by law.

“I think people are in a stronger position these days. They should definitely go for their rights, but also be diplomatic and reasonable about it.”

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