Women are invisible at the top of Australian business and many from diverse backgrounds are excluded from the traditional frontlines of feminism, Labor MP Anne Aly said on Wednesday.

Delivering the 2016 Emily's List Oration in Canberra, the Cowan MP said her experience as the first woman on a previously all-male board had taught her that men regularly take credit for the work of women.

"It was then that I discovered the incredible power that we women have. We are invisible.

"Put us in a room full of alpha males and we don a magical cloak of invisibility. Believe me if I had the invisibility superpower there are a few things I would rather do with it."