Women still earn less than two-thirds of average male earnings, although there has been a narrowing of the gap in recent years, according to a survey of women in the workforce by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

According to the survey, women on average now earn 65 per cent (or £199.72) of what men earn on a weekly basis.

In 1971, women received £13.12 per week, which was then 48 per cent of average male weekly earnings.

On an hourly basis, women's pay is 74 per cent of the rate for men. Women on average continue to work fewer hours than men.

The survey notes, however, that men and women work in a different mix of industrial occupations and this must be taken into account when making comparisons.

The survey shows that in the 25 years from 1971 to 1996, the number of women at work grew by 212,000, reaching 488,00 in 1996. This compares with growth of just 23,000 in male employment over the same 25 years.

Women now account for almost 40 per cent of those at work, with half of the growth in female employment taking place during the 1990s.

According to the CSO, the figures represent a "period of remarkable social change in the Republic" with many of the changes involving married women.

For example in 1971, the 38,300 married women at work accounted for only 14 per cent of the female work force but by last year half the female workforce - or 203,000 in total - were married.

The vast majority of the jobs in which women work are in the services sector, which has experienced the greatest employment growth over the past 25 years.

Mr Joe Treacy, senior statistician at the CSO, said women's share of the labour force has been growing more quickly than anticipated and the actual results for last year are closer to the level originally predicted for 2001.

In the Republic 41.1 per cent of women aged 15 or over are in the labour force; this compares with an EU average of 45.3 per cent. The highest female participation rates are in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark, with the lowest participation in Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Spain.

The survey shows a decline in women working in the home from 635,000 in 1971 and to 573,100 in 1996. The numbers of unemployed women has also risen in the same period, from 13,800 to 52,200, according to the Labour Force Survey. The survey also analyses the status of women in employment between 1991 and 1996. This shows a large increase in the amount of women working in parttime employment, from 69,400 to 111,100.

The Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Seamus Brennan, said the State still had a long way to go to catch up on other EU countries.

He added that married women had gained in particular from the labour force growth in the last number of years. The CSO yesterday introduced a new corporate image, including a newly designed logo. As part of the image change, the CSO will present its statistical releases in a more accessible format. The recent inception of a CSO website (http:// www.cso.ie) is also a part of the new image change, said CSO director general, Mr Donal Murphy.