Farming wives are the "invisible women" of Irish agriculture, with little land in their ownership and much of their work undocumented, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has claimed.
In an International Women's Day statement, the IFA equality officer, Ms Mary Carroll, said 40,000 women worked fulltime in farming, many on farms owned by their husbands.
"Many women, after spending a life working on farms, have no record of any employment and are not entitled to a contributory old age pension," she said.
In another International Women's Day announcement, the Labour Party said that in Government it would provide paid parental leave up to a total of 15 months for parents of new babies.
Fine Gael described the Government's record on equality for women as "an embarrassment" and called for more resources for breast cancer treatment, childcare, sex education in schools and family planning services.
The day was marked by a fund-raising lunch in Dublin attended by broadcaster Marian Finucane, poet Rita Anne Higgins, fashion designer Louise Kennedy and other high-profile women from business, politics and public life.
Proceeds went to the An Cosán educational projects run by women in Tallaght, Dublin.