Two hundred of the most successful women in the arts in the UK gathered in the Tate Modern on Thursday in a bid to inspire the next generation of artists, writers, directors and editors.

Figures as diverse as author Kate Mosse and actors Jessica Raine and Helen George from Call the Midwife, to Katie Leung of Harry Potter fame and entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den dragon Kelly Hoppen all gathered in Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall to meet and speak with 800 schoolgirls from 15 comprehensive schools.

It was an event spearheaded by Miriam González Durántez’s Inspiring Women campaign, which works to encourage more women to enter career fields across the board.

Leaving her husband Nick Clegg back in Sheffield Hallam canvassing for votes, Durántez, an international lawyer, spoke of the importance of ensuring young women had the opportunity and mindset to succeed in careers in the arts, and criticised the imbalance of women occupying the top arts positions.

She said it was partly down to the “complex maternity years”, advocating her support for joint paternity leave, but also said that self-confidence remained an issue

“There is still an issue about limiting ourselves and there is an issue of self-confidence that seems to apply to pretty much every group of girls that I have talked to,” she said.

“I look back and I have had points in my career and in my life where I have had to struggle with thinking ‘perhaps this is not for me’. And I had to push myself. And I am very open with the girls about that. Making a mistake is not a big issue, I think it is important for the girls to realise.”

Throughout the event, the various women circulated between tables where the schoolgirls were gathered and offered advice and stories of both their own successes and failures. On one table, Kanya King held a small group of girls enraptured with tales of the many obstacles she faced when setting up the Mobos, the first music awards to celebrate music of black origin.

“I defied everyone to do it – my mum wanted me to be a teacher,” she said. “I didn’t have the experience but I did have a lot of drive, a lot of energy and a lot of passion.”

For actor Jessica Raine, the importance of such an event was to “humanise success, to show these girls that it is not impossible to be a woman and be successful”.

Her Call The Midwife co-star Helen George agreed. “I think it is important to show you can be a successful women and be proud of it, that you don’t have to be ashamed or shy about it,” she added. “You see all of the women here asking ‘well why am I here? Am I really successful?’. Would a man ask those questions? Possibly not.

“I think as a society we currently are attuned to not be completely comfortable with successful women,” she added. “So I think it’s important for the next generation to be able to look up to strong women and have figureheads who have great lives, great friendships, great marriages and children, but also have careers and are not ashamed about that.”

Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court, emphasised how vital it was to allow schoolgirls to engage and interact with women in all realms of the arts, particularly in light of the systematic removal of arts from comprehensive education, as recently highlighted by the Warwick Commission.

“The most striking thing anybody has said to me today was ‘you all do jobs I thought only men could do’,” added Royal Court associate director Carrie Cracknell. “And I said to her, ‘the thing you’ve got to remember, there’s nothing you can’t do. The only thing you can’t do is have a willy, basically’. The girls really laughed but I hope that they’ll remember that because it is simple but really powerful.”

For the actor Jaimie Winstone, the male-dominated nature of the film industry, particularly behind the camera, made it even more important to inspire a new generation of women who would be taken seriously.

“This is such an important event because there are still so many obstacles for women today,” she said. “For a start, it is still hard to be taken seriously, get your voice heard and to walk into a room and be accepted as a strong women. I am currently moving into directing at the moment and I am finding that hard because being a women in such a male-dominated industry, you are just outnumbered in meeting rooms and on set.”

She added: “I wear red lipstick and red heels and does that mean I will not be taken seriously? It’s all these feminist battles that you deal with within yourself and it’s about finding the confidence to overcome those fears that are still so inbuilt within many women. So, today is about helping these girls overcome the boundaries that society instills in us from a young age.”

As the event came to a close, the schoolgirls sat on the floor, opened up their packed lunches and spoke animatedly about the past two hours. “That was so inspiring, to meet all these powerful, interesting women,” said 17-year-old Nina Commons, of Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls.

Her friend, Amber Brant, 16, nodded in agreement. “There is this attitude we are taught that it is impossible to get into a career in the arts, especially if you are a woman,” she said. “Before this, I would never have thought a woman would be doing these jobs. I thought it was still a man’s world.”