Last night I had the privilege of hugging Baroness Shirley Williams.

Baroness Williams was being honoured in the Lifetime Achievement category at the annual Women in Public Life Awards. I was asked to present the award – another privilege – and so had the chance to give her a congratulatory hug before she made her acceptance speech.

In the speech Williams, who had already been named Peer of the Year, spoke about the power of female friendship.

“One of the wonderful things about being a woman is that by and large other women wish you well,” she said. “When I was a young woman the idea of a friendship between women was considered very odd indeed. Now that I've reached the late years in my life I have to say that women's friendship flourishes in every generation I know; it's a wonderfully supportive thing and it is a great statement about the way in which women come together, learn to help one another, and learn to enjoy one another's successes.”

I couldn’t agree more that friendship between women can be a wonderfully supportive thing, but I wonder if we really do enough to support one another and enjoy each others’ successes, particularly at work.

In my own field of journalism I found that older women journalists (with a few notable exceptions) were the least friendly when I was starting out. It was often the male colleagues who offered advice, gave me opportunities or offered introductions.

Perhaps that’s just journalism, though. Earlier this year I spoke to Tabelle founder Siobhan Benita for an article about diversity at senior levels in the civil service. She said that it’s not just the presence of female role models which matters, but the attitude of these women. She praised the current crop of women leaders in the civil service saying they are “looking to, and helping, the women behind them.”

This is why a network like Tabelle is so powerful – it’s a practical embodiment of women coming together to help each other and enjoy mutual successes. But is there more that we can be doing to support our female colleagues?

Or is it naïve, and sentimental, to expect colleagues to be more helpful towards us simply because we happen to share a gender?