Most of the decision-makers in the Republic are men and "gender segregation" still exists, a leading union official told the Siptu National Women's Forum conference in Killarney at the weekend.
Esther Lynch, legislation and social affairs officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, called on women to begin a campaign to tackle "the child bar" with the same passion as they tackled the marriage bar.
She said it was "a myth" that women had achieved equality. "Things are not as rosy as they are presented. There is an erosion of women's rights. The myth that women are doing well is dangerous."
Ms Lynch said some 80 per cent of engineering graduates were male, most of those studying science at third level were male, and in the traditional trades there were only 131 females out of l30,000 apprentices. By contrast, women still dominated the health, welfare and care sectors.
The most recent statistics showed that women fell behind in the numbers employed as well as in promotions and pay. The 14 per cent pay gap in women's hourly wages increased with age, and women in the 55-64 age group earned on average only 53.1 per cent of men's income, Ms Lynch said.
Her call for "a new campaign" to improve women's lives and allow them equal opportunity in the workplace was overwhelmingly endorsed by delegates.
"The people making the decisions in this country are nearly all men. Only 14 per cent of TDs are women, but what is not widely known is that 95 per cent of secretary generals in departments are men," Ms Lynch said.
She said women were working less hours than men every week, and their participation in the workplace reduced when they had children, largely because of childcare costs and the stresses associated with a work environment in which there was little support for parents.
Women were therefore losing out on a large chunk of life in the workplace, with knock-on effects for promotion. "The marriage bar might be gone, but the child bar is taking its place," she said, adding that the child bar needed to be tackled with the same anger as we attacked the marriage bar.
Mandatory paid parental leave for fathers should be considered, as well as legislating for a right to flexible work arrangements.
Ms Lynch also said there was increasing evidence that overweight women were being discriminated against, and the State needed to consider including new grounds of discrimination.
Older and overweight women were being actively cut out of some jobs, she said. Equality law was being circumvented by some employers, who were using employment agencies to "profile" ideal candidates - invariably younger and thinner women.
Only a quarter of working women aged over 35 had a third-level qualification, Ms Lynch said, adding that second-chance education for older women needed to become a reality.