When Inez McCormack was appointed President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions many of her colleagues weren't shy in reminding her that she should know her place within the higher echelons of the trade union movement.

She would be a figurehead of the organisation and certainly would not be involved in the nuts and bolts of the partnership negotiations, they privately told reporters.

Halfway through her term she candidly admits that it has not been the easiest year. "I was never good at knowing my place. Ego politics and status bore me rigid. They are extraordinary ineffectual in producing change for those who need it." "The position is one where you could enjoy the perks, and many would feel more comfortable if that is what I was interested in. But I don't come from a comfortable place, I have never had a comfortable agenda and I don't permit anyone to allow me do anything.

"There is no fun in being the first woman on anything, including the first woman president of congress." But "the first woman" badge is one she has worn regularly.

She was the first female officer in the National Union of Public Employees in the late 1970s. Although more than 80 per cent of its members were women, all of the 200 officials of the London-based trade union were men until her arrival.

She recalls the interview for the job. "There were 37 members on the interview panel. It took an hour and 40 minutes.

"It was a time when issues like sexual harassment didn't have a name. You were either a woman without a sense of humour or someone to whom rights would eventually trickle down.

"They asked what I would do if I had children. I was five months pregnant at the time. The truth is I lied, because that is what you did then."

In 1991 she was elected to the executive council of congress. Again she was the first woman, and her election was far from unanimous.

When UNISON formed two years later with the merger of the three largest public service unions in Britain she became regional secretary.

Born in east Belfast, Ms Inez is married to a writer and clinical psychologist, Vincent McCormack. They have one daughter, Anne, who works as a graphic designer in Scotland.

She left school at 16 and did her O and A levels while working as a typist in the lowest grade job the civil service in Northern Ireland had to offer. She went on to study history and politics at Trinity and did a diploma in social studies at Queen's University, Belfast.

She is a founder member of the Fair Employment Agency in the North and of the Equal Opportunities Commission. She withdrew from the first in 1981 because it was ineffectual, she pulled out of the Commission because of "deliberate non-enforcement of the law" in the late 1970s.

"If you go on something like that you should work at it and try and make a difference. But you should never mistake the mechanism for the end. If it doesn't bring about change, you shouldn't support it just for the sake of it." She feels the same way about the social partnership process. "I don't dismiss the partnership approach, but it has to be judged, not by how comfortable those around the table are, but what they have done to make the lives of those who need change more comfortable." The agreement fell short of what it should have achieved, she says. "We did something for them, but we didn't do enough. "We went into the talks with a broad agenda of tackling low pay and inequality, but also of raising living standards. When it came down to it in the final hours of the negotiations, a lot of the traditionalists around the table went for money over quality of life issues.

"Instead of interlocking issues like childcare places, public transport, and affordable housing, we took the easy option and took the money. That was always going to be totally undermined if inflation rose. "Where we also fell down was in tackling inequality. We prioritised flat rate increases, there wasn't a constituency around the table willing to argue for increases that would be weighted towards the less well-off.

"We can't criticise Government and employers for what happened, when we didn't accept our own responsibilities towards the lower paid." Congress has sought and got a review of the partnership agreement in response to rising inflation. "We have another opportunity to seriously produce results." While giving stability and rewards, the social partnership process has a price for the trade union movement, she says. Although the numbers in the workforce have increased, the percentage of those who are members of a trade union continues to fall.

"There is a problem with social partnership in that it removed the impetus that a trade union movement has to organise to survive. People will vote for the goodies but the trade union movement will not survive on delivering goodies alone. If we do not organise, social partnership will become a prison for us." She is staggered by the fact that after 12 years of social partnership trade union recognition is still not guaranteed.

"It is incredible that in this time of plenty business can ask the Government to resist bringing in part-time worker directives, paid parental leave or increased maternity benefits.

"Any long-term assessment of the economy requires a motivated, skilled workforce, who feel committed and loyal. That requires employers to change the relationship with their workers, to give them more power in the work place.

"They can't have containment without change." She will be pushing those issues in the review. "We can all be united on what we go in on, but the real test is when it comes to outcomes, will we stay with the easily handled agenda of a few pounds more or will we look for real change."