The Irish legal profession is understandably proud of the representation of women in the upper reaches of the judiciary. After all, a quarter of our Supreme Court is female, which compares favourably with Britain and Northern Ireland. In Britain there are no women law lords, and in the North there are no women on the High Court bench, and very few in the lower courts.

But when one looks further, the picture in this State is not so rosy. True, there are two female judges on the High Court, but this is out of a total of 26, and there are only five out of 28 on the Circuit Court bench. In the District Court, where the overwhelming majority of the judges are drawn from the solicitors' branch of the profession, there are nine women and 41 men. Overall, the average is about 14 per cent female representation. The prospects for the immediate future are not promising, if one considers the pool from which judges are drawn. Most judges above district court level are still drawn from the ranks of senior barristers; there are 218 senior counsel in the Law Library. Only 18 of them are women.

Among ordinary barristers, or junior counsel, the proportion is about two to one. There are 750 male and 376 female barristers in the Law Library, though the numbers now entering the barristers' branch of the legal profession are about equal.

It has not been easy for those who have reached the upper levels of the profession. Maureen Clarke SC came to the bar 25 years ago, and is now one of the most experienced criminal lawyers practising there, with a wide practice. "Every single barrister I met then warned me I wouldn't make a living, I wouldn't be up to it, clients wouldn't like me. A lot of us believed it," she says. But she adds: "It's a very different climate now.

"When I started, I had two small children and was separated. The only reason I succeeded was I had two children and I had to. I went on circuit. The solicitors on circuit were great. You just have to get on with it."

This is also the view of Miriam Reynolds, an SC since 1998. She was called to the Bar in 1981. "I was on the Donegal circuit for 16 years, up there from Monday to Friday. I got married and had two children in that time."

This was only possible with the support of her husband and his family, she says. But even with that, it was hard. "Both children were born in the long (summer) vacation. One was only four weeks old when I had to go to Donegal. I was prosecutor for Donegal for eight years before I took silk, doing mostly crime. I'd like to see more women doing crime, it's seen as a male preserve."

While they agree that things are easier now for women, and both stress the wealth of talent among young female barristers, they still believe certain areas of the law are less hospitable to women. The particularly lucrative areas of work, such as commercial law and insurance cases, are widely seen as the preserve of a predominantly male group of barristers.

Family law was, and remains, an area dominated by women, though there is a small number of prominent male barristers who have also done this work from the beginning of their careers, usually as student volunteers in Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC). "But these cases are in camera," Miriam Reynolds points out, "so the women who have made a great contribution to the development of the law in this area are not heard of. No-one knew how good these women were."

One of them was Inge Clissman, also now a senior counsel. She started in FLAC, and her family law practice grew out of that. "It was seen as the dregs of law. You were meant to be fighting about trivial things. It was poorly paid for the time put in, and that is still the case for the majority of cases."

Catherine McGuinness, recently appointed a Supreme Court judge, also had a large family-law practice. "At the beginning, family law was seen as women's bailiwick. It was also seen as second-class law, somehow not real law," she says. "Now that there are divorce judgments and separations in which very large amounts of money are at stake it has got a lot more status.

"Women did almost all the work to begin with. But the majority of petitioners in family law are women, so they might have found it easier to talk to women in the beginning."

However, she also felt comfortable doing crime and other work as a barrister. "I never felt the bar was highly discriminatory. You didn't feel as out of place as in political life. A hewer of sandwiches and a drawer of tea was what you were meant to be in politics. There might have been a certain adjustment involved, but there was certainly no discrimination from judges. We survived, most of us."

However, some women lawyers ask what this survival cost. "What did women have to do to get on?" asks one. "Some had to get back on their feet in court three days after having babies. Is that equality? It is a very macho atmosphere."

Inge Clissman agrees that there were no concessions for family life. "When I was having children, under no circumstances when I was fixing a date would I mention to any judge that I might have a difficulty with the date. I never felt I could even mention the topic. It was just taboo." However, she believes this is now changing.

Younger women barristers are generally very admiring of this generation, and agree that things are easier now. "The only obstacles now are those that exist in any trade or profession," says one, who did not wish to be named.

"Most women are not as confident as most men. A lot of the senior women are incredibly male and strong, while there are a lot of very nondescript male seniors. Women seniors have had to be better than the men."

Asked if there was a difference in the way they approached their work, she says: "Women will discuss cases and get advice. Men are more likely to hide their insecurity. They will bull on, right or wrong."

Some of the problems experienced by female barristers arise from the fact that all barristers are self-employed. However, this is not necessarily the case with solicitors.

This branch of the legal profession is becoming increasingly female. While 40 per cent of practising solicitors are now women, 60 per cent of those at present studying to become solicitors are female.

Denise Kenny is a solicitor with the leading Dublin solicitors' firm, McCann Fitzgerald. "We have about 200 lawyers working here, and we would try to take in a balance, though we always recruit on merit. We have 53 partners, of whom 15 are women."

Asked how difficult it was for women to combine their work with family commitments, she says: "I have three children myself. It depends on what support you have at home. It is a demanding job with long hours. "We do have people who work on flexible arrangements with shorter hours, like research lawyers. It depends on the area of work."

A&L Goodbody has about 180 solicitors, about half of them women, and they are evenly distributed around departments. However, according to Aine Maguire, the proportion falls as one goes up the ranks. Of the 54 partners only 14 are women - but this is changing. She points out that of the five people promoted to partner last year, three were women.

About 60 per cent of the solicitors in Arthur Cox and company are female. However, only 10 of its 52 partners are. Eugene McCague, a partner in the company, attributes this to historical factors and says it will change. The firm offers flexible and part-time working to anyone who wants it. "Given the marketplace, all firms will have to come up with more flexible arrangements," he says.

There is a similar pattern in the public sector. In the Legal Aid Board, for example, which employs 100 solicitors, and where the board has sought pay increases for its staff in order to compete with the private sector, 68 of the solicitors are women. Among the 31 managing solicitors, 15 are men.

If one is to judge from the entry figures, the law is now becoming a predominantly female profession, with about 60 per cent of those studying law being women. The large Dublin solicitors firms, in particular, are adapting to meet this, and many have flexible policies to meet the needs of staff with families.

However, this has not fully permeated into the smaller and rural firms and at the bar, where everyone is self-employed, the pressures of having a family will continue to bear more heavily on women.

Carol Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times