Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh is looking to fill the company's senior ranks with more women, but says female employees need to be more confident.
With 82 per cent of the mining giant's workforce made up of men, Mr Walsh has acknowledged that the gender gap needs to be closed, especially within Rio's senior management ranks.
But he says one of the problems is that women just aren't confident enough in the workplace when it comes to climbing the corporate ladder.
"One of the biggest challenges is that you throw a job opportunity at a bloke and he says, `I can do that, I've got all the background, I know exactly what I should do'," Mr Walsh told a mining dinner in London overnight.
"You throw the same opportunity at a woman and ... well `I've never done that before, it would be a huge stretch', and what-have-you."
In a light-hearted exchange with the audience at the Melbourne Mining Club function, Mr Walsh said he was not urging women to lie in their job applications.
"Certainly not, no man would ever do that," he said.
"But you do need to recognise that gentlemen do stretch the facts a little bit and the women here need to have more confidence in your own ability to adapt, your ability to be resilient, your ability to be flexible and responsive to a new challenge and you need to take a risk.
"They will be a strong part of the new senior management of the business."
Mr Walsh also acknowledged gender diversity had been a problem at Rio Tinto and says he wants to boost the number of women from 18 per cent to 50 per cent.
"We get it right at an operating and working level, it's when you get up to senior management that we have the problem," he said.
"We're missing out on 32 per cent of the talent that's out there."
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