Dame Helen: 'What a pity the Government is so boyish' But speaking at a Women Leaders Series at the Institute for Government on Tuesday night, she appeared to stand by her original comments and said that as she now no longer works for the Government, she is free to give her honest opinion. Talking about her new life as director general of the National Trust, she said: "People ask my opinion and I can express it. I can say what I think. Dame Helen then spoke about what she learnt during her time as a civil servant, and said "being in some departments felt more like being in a jungle than in other departments." She said how much she enjoyed working for ministers with a "clear vision," but found other "ministers made decisions based on what the Daily Mail would say." Dame Helen also commented on the lack of women in the Government, and the fact that four Tory female MPs have either left the party, or will stand down for the 2015 elections. The four female Tory MPs leaving Since the Coalition came into power in 2010, Conservative MPs Jessica Lee, Lorraine Fullbrook and Laura Sandys have all announced they will stand down in 2015, and Louise Mensch quit as the MP for Corby in 2012. Dame Helen suggested this was because they had not thought about what the reality of working in Parliament would be like, and had not considered how much it would take them away from their families. She said: "I suspect they didn't necessarily think about what they wanted to do," and said they probably later thought: "I want to spend more time with my children." Back in 2012, Dame Helen also spoke about the difficulties of women getting into Parliament. In quotes obtained by the Evening Standard, she said: "Women don't network. It is actually quite difficult for a woman to get in as part of an Old Etonian clique. They are far too busy doing other things, like bringing up their children, looking after their constituency. That kind of networking is actually a harder thing for women to do. There was a magical moment some time in 2006 and 2007 when half of the government departments were run by women. But it is still true for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office that the top jobs are still going to men, which I regret. Female Cabinet ministers do a bit of networking among themselves but the other networks in governments are often much, much more powerful - whether it's the Etonian clique or the Brownites or the Blairites.