What is holding women back in the workplace? If you ask Kevin Roberts, the outgoing Saatchi & Saatchi chairman, the problem is women themselves. “Their ambition is not a vertical ambition, it’s this intrinsic, circular ambition to be happy,” he said last week in an interview with Business Insider. A few days later, having been suspended by parent company Publicis, he admitted that he had “failed exceptionally fast” and announced he would resign.

It is superficially appealing to cast Mr Roberts as the victim of a feminist witch hunt. Surely he is a martyr who dared to speak the truth: that for many women it is the desire to have a work-life balance, rather than discrimination, that stops them reaching the top of their industry.

But his comments went far beyond that. He denied that gender inequality was a problem at all — “the f***ing debate is all over” — and accused British advertising consultant Cindy Gallop of lying about sexual harassment in the industry. “I think she’s got problems that are of her own making,” he claimed. “I think she’s making up a lot of the stuff to create a profile, and to take applause.”

Under such circumstances, it is unsurprising that Publicis moved against him: an advertising firm should know a bad advert for its business when it sees one. Sadiq Khan, mayor or London, has banned “body shaming” posters on the capital’s transport system; Unilever has pledged to spend its ￡6.3bn annual marketing budget on ads that smash female stereotypes. Sex might still sell but sexism is out of fashion.

For outsiders, however, an honest conversation is always more useful than knee-jerk condemnation. Mr Roberts’ comments are a reminder of three roadblocks on the path to gender equality at work: outdated attitudes; unhelpful structures; and a lack of data — a result of the casual dismissal of women’s experiences.

First, it is time to overhaul our idea of a perfect employee. There is little evidence to support the assumption that macho work-aholics are the most valuable people in a company. Second, we have to smash the artificial division between a woman’s choice to opt out of the rat race and “real” discrimination. Our decisions are shaped by the unequal structures of the working environment.

Once a woman has taken time off work for childbirth and breastfeeding, a pattern is created where she is seen as the “primary” parent. Many hoped the introduction of shared parental leave would change that; but so far UK take-up rates have been very low. (Unlike the Scandinavian model, there is no portion which can only be taken by fathers.)

The “maternity gap” is the most fundamental structural problem preventing gender equality in the workplace. Among full-time British workers aged 22-29, women earn more than men. At the age where women can work as flexibly, and put in the same long hours as their male peers, they do not fall behind. The pay gap opens up when children arrive — and then never closes again.

Very few firms “enhance” statutory paternity pay, so men are understandably reluctant to take the drop in status and income that staying at home entails. There is a very good reason for a woman to return to work after having a baby: an income of her own and the independence that brings. Where is the matching incentive for men to undertake more unpaid caring labour that takes them out of the workplace? Encouraging men to take shared parental leave, to work part time, or even to leave at 6pm to read a bedtime story, would help.

Finally, we must listen when women talk about the experiences that have held them back. Overt discrimination of the “dumb blondes can’t fly planes” school is diminishing, but sexual harassment at work is widespread. It is not something women make up “to create a profile”. A glance around boardrooms and corner offices shows there is no monstrous regiment of women borne to the top on a wave of allegations against colleagues. Like other whistleblowers, women who accuse their bosses of sexual harassment often end up sidelined or forced out while the accused is protected. Gretchen Carlson, the US television presenter, was initially painted as a washed-up gold-digger when she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the Fox News boss. Then the dam burst: another 20 women came forward with similar accusations. Mr Ailes, who denies the claims, soon left the company, with a $40m exit package.

None of this is a reason for despair, particularly since bright minds in business and academia are focused on the problem. Sometimes the suggested solutions are small: Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Unfinished Business warns against “halo dad” syndrome, where fathers are praised for simple childcare tasks in a way that reinforces assumptions that men are useless at taking care of others.

What Works by Professor Iris Bohnet of Harvard University offers practical suggestions for reducing bias in hiring, pointing out, for example, that blind auditions increased the number of female musicians in orchestras.

Gender inequality at work is a big challenge but not insoluble. And as more researchers come up with hard data, and more women feel able to speak about their experiences, the debate is far from “all over”. In fact, it is just getting interesting.