AN award-winning female entrepreneur yesterday attacked Sir Alan Sugar's attitude to the employment of women as "total tosh".

The Amstrad boss earlier said rules that stopped bosses asking whether job applicants planned to start a family were counter-productive.

He encouraged female applicants to "spell out their marital and child status" to avoid uncertainty in the mind of the employer.

And he said female bosses could be even more reluctant than men to employ other women because of their experience of "how home life and children can disrupt their work".

But Margaret Manning, winner of a female entrepreneur of the year award, responded angrily to the comments.

The chief executive of digital communications agency Reading Room said: "This is total tosh. You can tell these are comments made by a man.

"Unfortunately, I think Sir Alan has made a really superficial statement about a complex issue and is being quite patronising to boot.

"We need to look at bringing in major cultural change in business to make the most of our entire work force and that means policies that advance talent across the board."

Sir Alan, 61, said his thoughts about female employment had been misrepresented in the past. He said he had been misquoted and denied he endorsed discrimination against women in the workplace.

He said: "My sentiments were supposed to convey that I felt the employment laws today are indeed damaging in respect to women, they are counter-productive.

"To restrict one asking about a woman's status in respect to her children or her intentions to have children creates an air of uncertainly in the mind of a prospective employer.

"But be under no illusion male employers are not the worse culprits. Women employers are more tuned into this as, quite understandably, being a woman they may have experienced themselves how home life and children can disrupt their work."

Sir Alan was speaking out ahead of the new series of BBC1's The Apprentice, which started its fourth season last night.

In last year's series, motherof- two Katie Hopkins walked out of the show because Sir Alan challenged her commitment to the job.

One of this year's candidates, Shazia Wahab, won damages from a law firm after claiming discrimination in 2003.

Sir Alan said: "My advice to women applying for a job is to be proactive and spell out their marital and child status and pre-empt what may be in the mind of the person across the table by explaining that this part of their lives is organised."

But Ms Manning said her approach was to give women flexible working hours on request and not to force them to work long hours.

She added: "I suppose that this is a rather female thought process and management style - it's set up to encourage talent."