The male monolith of the Irish trade union movement will be led into the next century by a woman. When Inez McCormack, currently vice-president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, becomes its president in 1999, she will have an opportunity to bring equality issues centre stage .

Her election as vice-president is part of a process that has seen women trade unionists move into senior positions across the unions. However, there is little prospect of another woman becoming general secretary of a trade union in the near future. Ms McCormack will remain in splendid isolation, surrounded by male colleagues, at the top table.

Life is still very different for women trade unionists, even at the top. Take the following vignette: it was 10 a.m. on Saturday, negotiations to avert a major strike had been going on for 24 hours and a resolution seemed at last in sight. But one senior negotiator had an additional problem. In the boot of her car was her son's football kit and the kits of all his team-mates. The kick-off was an hour away; what was she to do? In the end she left the meeting and the fate of the nation to their own devices to make sure the game went ahead.

Women who are full-time trade union officials - like other successful career women - often find they have to make tough, even cruel choices between their professional and personal lives. "If you look at women close to the top of the trade union movement they tend to be older women with grown-up children, or no children at all," says one senior woman trade unionist who is herself single. "Then you look at the men and they've all loads of kids."

"If you're a woman in your 30s and capable, it's very difficult to reach the higher levels without significant sacrifices, such as giving up time with your children, or just not having children," she says.

A very few women, like the mother referred to above, have reached senior positions because of supportive partners. Ms McCormack is one. As Irish regional secretary of the public services union UNISON, she represents 31,000 workers at the ICTU.

She has been campaigning for women's rights in the trade union movement for more than 20 years. "In the last decade, issues around women have moved centre stage in a way inconceivable before," she says.

She believes the commitment to social partnership is an important new ingredient in the process, although she is the first to admit the debate on how inclusive that partnership can be remains "in the embryonic stage".

She has practised what she preaches. UNISON's membership in Northern Ireland doubled during the past 18 years, when most British unions shrank under a virulently anti-union Conservative government, especially public sector unions, which had to weather drastic redundancies. UNISON grew, not just by recruiting in the workplace but by going out into shopping centres and bingo halls to meet potential members.

Does she believe that unions are prepared to transform rhetoric about equality into action? "I was nominated by 30 unions North and South. They all know the issues I've fought all my life for."

Angela Cassidy is president of the Civil and Public Service Union. Seventy per cent of its members are women but the

CPSU general secretary and deputy general secretary are men. She says unions reflect the general trend in society for women to be kept out of the core decision-making processes. "Society is organised around male structures and basically uses hierarchical systems." Men tend to be "more competitive, more aggressive and use more confrontational ways of achieving goals.

"I believe women have an innate preference for a more collective method of achieving their goals, based on mutual support and respect for each other, that culminates in getting the job done." She says that if social partnership is to work in the long term then women's values are going to have to become more central to the process - for employers as well as the unions.

She feels that unions should experiment more with "cross gender mentoring". This system was used very effectively to encourage "fledgling women entrepreneurs" in the business sector.

Ms Cassidy believes there should be gender balance at the top of all unions, with at least 40 per cent of all seats representing the relevant minority sex. The CPSU has introduced equality proofing procedures for all its elective bodies.

Seventy-eight per cent of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation membership is female but the executive is overwhelmingly male, including the general secretary and deputy general secretary. The senior full-time female official is assistant general secretary, Catherine Byrne.

Like Ms Cassidy, she believes women approach issues, and life in general, very differently from men. "Men's lives tend to revolve around work and to be successful as a senior trade unionist you need to give an enormous amount of time to the job."

Traditional views and stereotypes also play a role. "Women in unions tend to end up in roles that reflect this, such as dealing with child-care issues, social policy and equality, rather than being involved in collective bargaining.

"Often women have less free time outside work because of family responsibilities. When you combine that with the fact that unions conduct their business at weekends and late in the evenings, it makes things very difficult," she adds.

The equality officer of the ICTU, Rosaleen Glacken, agrees. She argues that more adequate child-care provisions by the State and a radical reorganisation of how unions do their business will be needed before women are adequately represented in the movement.

"I think the trade union workplace has itself to become more family-friendly," she says.

"Unions can't continually make demands on the Government and employers to create more family-friendly work structures if they are not prepared to address the problem themselves. I believe work could be reorganised and women in trade unions are beginning to challenge the notion that the working day lasts until late into the night."

Obviously there will always be crises that require long hours of work but she says that many women trade unionists see the current work pattern as reflecting tradition rather than the demands of today.

In the old days unions conducted much of their business in pubs. Many women trade union activists feel the pub culture is still strong, though declining. Many a late-night meeting effectively ends in the pub, where plans are laid for the next meeting. Even important negotiations are often suspended to allow for a break before closing time.

Experience is also a major consideration when jobs are filled. Men still have the advantage and women activists argue that the rules must be radically changed before the gender imbalance at the top changes.

SIPTU has 70,000 women members but only one female official above branch secretary level, Noir in Greene, equality officer. If none of the union's other women is suitable for a senior position it suggests one of two things. Either the selection process is faulty or women don't belong in the largest union.

SIPTU has embarked on two major initiatives to involve female members more actively in its affairs but these are in their infancy. It and other unions will have to accelerate the process radically to make up for years of neglect. Otherwise they may have difficulty remaining relevant in the rapidly changing world of work.