8 badass women in business Source: PA / Getty Images / REX Features Credit: METRO/mylo
So badass (Source: PA / Getty Images / REX Features Credit: METRO/mylo)

Women aren’t cut out for business and they can’t cope with failure, according to this female entrepreneur.

Founder of a global food empire, Annabel Karmel has caused upset by saying that women are ‘too sensitive’ to succeed in tough industries as they can’t cope with failure.

It is true that women are seemingly struggling to make it in big business, with only 14.2 per cent of people in top leadership positions in S&P 500 companies, according to CNN money.

Yet there plenty of examples of women also proving everyone wrong.

Here are seven women who are definitely not ‘too sensitive’ for business.

1) Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook

facebook1
Power company. Powerful women working there (Photo: Xinhura/REX Shutterstock)

Facebook is a pretty powerful company – so much so that it can send the social media (therefore everyone’s) world into chaos. It makes sense that powerful women should help run it.

Sandberg worked at Google and the US treasury before becoming Facebook’s chief operating officer. She was then elected to the board of directors in 2012 after four years in the role – the first woman to do so.

In the same year, she was named as one of 100 influential people in the world by Time Magazine.

2) Elaine Higginson from United Coffee

The main thing you need to know is that she brings you your coffee. That might be reason enough to consider her as badass.

As the managing director of United Coffee and Ireland, she helps to bring coffee to restaurants, retailers around the UK. These include McDonald’s, Greggs, Waitrose and Tesco.

To put things into perspective, she’s responsible for supply approximately 20 billion cups of coffee.

We owe you one Elaine.

cofffee gif
Please never leave me.

3) Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive of the Alliance Trust and a super mum

Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive officer of Alliance Trust Plc, speaks during a session on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 23, 2015. World leaders, influential executives, bankers and policy makers attend the 45th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos from Jan. 21-24. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Quite the multi-tasker (Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

You know how they say it is for women – children and career are two opposite choices. Not that long ago, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said women working in the City are ‘worth less’ if they have children.

Here’s one woman proving them all wrong.

Katherine isn’t just the chief executive of investment company Alliance Trust. She also has one, not two, but FOUR kids.

She also plays the piano, flute and organ, and likes skiing and sailing according to an interview with Evening Standard.

4) Anne Sweeney, former Disney executive. Now director at Netflix

TOKYO, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 12: Anne Sweeney, Co-Chair of Disney Media Networks and President of Disney-ABC Television Group, speaks during The World Assembly for Women in Tokyo: WAW! Tokyo 2014 at Keidanren Kaikan on September 12, 2014 in Tokyo, Japan. The issues to be discussed included the economic benefits of promoting active roles of women, diversity in working styles, and other common issues relating to women throughout the world. (Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)
She was there overseeing the creation of your favourite shows (Photo by Atsushi Tomura/Getty Images)

Anne worked at Disney and now she’s become a director at Netflix working on their original content.

That means she’s officially done all our dream jobs.

While at Disney, she had a number of roles including being president of the Disney Channel from 1996 to 2014.

So she was responsible for the creation of Lizzie McGuire and launching Miley Cyrus’ career. That’s right, this is all down to her.

miley cyrus riding a cat

5) Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo

Marissa Mayer attends the 'China: Through The Looking Glass' Costume Institute Benefit Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2015 in New York City.
Another multi-tasker (Photo: Abaca)

Another former Google employee, Marissa has done big things for Yahoo since becoming chief executive in 2012.

She led the $1billion acquisition of Tumblr and changed Yahoo’s maternity leave policy to lengthen the time allowance and to give parents a cash bonus.

What’s more, when she graduated from Stanford, she received 14 job offers.

Ah, to be so wanted.

6) Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of Ann Summers and Knickerbox

Jacqueline Gold (centre) the CEO of the company Ann Summers, with models as she attends a party to celebrate the relaunch of the Ann Summers Oxford Street store in central London.
She knows how to party (Photo: PA)

Sexually satisfied couples everywhere have this woman to thank.

Jacqueline has been bringing spice to your sex life since 1987 when she was made chief executive of Ann Summers, transforming it into a multi-million pound company.

She’s been voted most powerful woman by many women’s magazines, including Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping.

7) Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop

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Anita in 2007 when she joined Britain’s Rich List (Photo: REX Shutterstock)

For Dame Anita Roddick, founding the Body Shop wasn’t just about making money. It was about founding a business built on ethical consumerism.

As she wrote on her website, her early travels and her upbringing gave her a frugal perspective that made her question retail conventions.

‘We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could,’ she wrote.

The foundation of The Body Shop’s environmental activism was born out of ideas like these.’

Her environmental campaigning and and activism gained her a damehood. She died in 2007 due to a brain haemorrhage.