Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in decision making in Ireland and have lower incomes and hourly earnings than men, according to a new report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The research also finds that increasing numbers of Irish women are in formal employment, but they are at greater risk of poverty than men, despite being less likely to be early school-leavers.
The report, entitled Women and Men in Ireland, notes that Ireland had the most "gender balanced" population in the EU last year, with equal numbers of men and women in the population.
Both men and woman also have higher than average life expectancy.
But the number of women living as lone parents with children under 20 has almost doubled from 65,600 to 122,800 since 1997. The number of men in this situation has also increased from 8,100 to 9,700.
The report draws together data from 75 indicators. It states that Irish women have a slightly higher risk of poverty than men (19.5 per cent versus 17.5 per cent), and had an average income in 2005 two-thirds that of men - and hourly earnings at 86 per cent of their male counterparts.
It notes that just 13 per cent of TDs in the current Dáil Éireann following this year's election are women.
This places Ireland at 23rd place out of 27 EU countries and 10 per cent below the EU average.
There were almost 900,000 women and around 1.2 million men in employment in Ireland this year, with women working an average of 31.3 hours per week and men working 40 hours per week. Both of these figures represent a slight decrease on previous years. Ireland also had the lowest female unemployment rate in the EU last year, at 4.1 per cent.
Women represented just 34 per cent of members of State boards and 20 per cent of members of local authorities in 2005, it notes.
By comparison, 84 per cent of primary teachers and almost 80 per cent of health service staff are women.
While at least eight out of 10 nurses, health managers and administrators were women, only 30 per cent of some 2,800 medical and dental consultants are women.
Similarly, 80 per cent of staff in clerical grades in the Civil Service are women, but they represent just 10 per cent of staff at assistant and deputy secretary levels, while just less than 12 per cent of department secretary generals were female.
However, men are generally more likely to die at a younger age than women. This is most visible in the 15-24 year old age group, reflecting a greater tendency for young men to die by suicide and to be involved in motor traffic collisions.
The report notes that, at 60 per cent, the employment rate for women in Ireland this year exceeded EU targets, while at 77 per cent, the rate for men was also significantly above the EU average.
But while EU targets of 50 per cent for the employment of older people have been reached three years early for men, the figure for Irish women in this age group (40 per cent in 2007) is significantly below this level. This is despite the fact that the female employment rate for this age group has almost doubled in 10 years.
This year just 1 per cent of persons whose principal activity was looking after the home or family were men.
In terms of education, female students aged between 18-24 were much less likely to leave school early than their male counterparts (9 per cent versus 15 per cent).
Both these figures were lower than the EU average.