Statistics compiled for the recently published Women in the Labour Force report show that even though women comprise around 40 per cent of the workforce, it is estimated that less than 3 per cent of the top executives in the State are women.

Where these positions are filled by women, they earn considerably less than their male counterparts. Presidential phenomenons Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese are freaks of nature in the face of these female-unfriendly figures.

It is understandable, then, that Mary Harney's light-hearted remark in 1998 that she required a wife to cope with her life as a hardworking, ambitious politician struck a chord with the miniscule minority of women who occupy senior positions in their chosen field across the State.

The Tanaiste was not divulging some personal predilection but illustrating the point that traditionally women have not had the luxury - as most successful men in business, medicine, politics and law have had for centuries - of a great woman standing behind them shopping and cleaning and changing nappies and generally oiling the wheels of the great, unstoppable work-machine.

The result was that the bread-winning, the back-slapping, the servile flattering, the promotion-seeking got done without these mundane hassles. And it could all be done without time limits because there were absolutely no distractions, no household matters getting in the way of the important stuff.

Another result was that at the very top, at executive, managing director, senior consultant level, the man became indistinguishable from the job, the job inseparable from the man. Which, in terms of the very highest manmade posts in the land, is exactly where we are now.

Along with the accolades for John Hume when he received his Nobel peace prize there was another for his wife June. He was the package, it was explained, but she made the delivery of that package possible. Without such an effective Federal Express system on legs, it is doubtful whether Hume could have put in the long hours, attended the meetings, knocked together the heads - all those things that won him the respect of the world.

Most women these days, and by extension most of their male partners, do not have such a luxury of such a loyal third arm, yet the demands, the pressures, the unwritten rule that says getting your name etched on a brass plaque on the door must mean shedding an unhealthy quota of blood, sweat and tears, still apply.

Perusing the list of top jobs below and the (admittedly rather unscientific) speculations about when a woman is likely to fill these roles, one woman remarked: "The way things stand I don't think many women would want those jobs in the way they are structured."

Ann O'Donnell of the National Women's Council agrees, saying the whole work ethic needs to be changed because few women, with or without children, are prepared to sacrifice the time and tolerate the lack of personal life these jobs are known to entail. "They are ambitious but they know the importance of a healthy, rounded lifestyle that does not involve an obsession with your job," she comments.

It is no longer a feminist issue but an urgent human one, at a time when statistics show that the majority of illnesses and diseases suffered by the top people in business are related to stress. All the equality legislation in the world will be useless unless it comes with a recognition that if the workplace is to be utterly inclusive the nature of these roles needs to undergo serious change.

The post-feminist generation of young women may be revelling in the choices that seem to stretch out before them in what they perceive is a gender-bias-free world, but if they decide to have children, says Ann O'Donnell, they "wake up with a bang". Affordable childcare must go hand in hand with the changes in the workplace, she says, if "glass ceiling" is to become obsolete as a phrase.

In the meantime, we take a look at just how near, or in some cases far away, women are from the seats of power that to date have been occupied only by men.

Garda commissioner

Salary: £81,000

When vacant: 2003

Appointed by: the government

Best bet: 2010

Paddy Powers's odds: 10/1

A woman Garda Commissioner is only a slightly more likely-sounding appointment than it may seem. The fact is that less than a tenth of the force is made up of women and in the senior ranks they are all but invisible.

However, just before Christmas last year Catherine Clancy (43) was appointed the first female chief superintendent of the force and if anybody is tipped as first female commissioner, it would have to be her.

The first banghardai (a term now abandoned) were accepted into the force in 1959. Twenty years later there were only 78 in the force. There are now 1,095 female gardai out of a force of 11,228.

The low numbers are reflected in the top ranks where only 4 per cent of sergeants, 2 per cent of inspectors and 1 per cent of superintendents are women.

Taoiseach

Salary: £72,087 plus TD's salary of £37,473 plus expenses

Appointed by: the Dail

When next vacant: anybody's guess

Best bet: 2020

Paddy Powers's odds: 14/1

The deputy leader of Fianna Fail, Mary O'Rourke, has in the past been seen as the woman most likely to be the State's first Sheseach but is now considered too old to achieve that position. The most senior woman in Fine Gael, Nora Owen, has more time on her side although commentators say that current leader John Bruton would have to step down as leader very soon if Owen is to ever be seriously in the frame.

Then there is Liz O'Donnell who, if the more pessimistic ponderings about the demise of the PDs are to be taken seriously, could have a chance at some point in the future if her career takes her in the direction of Fine Gael or, more likely, Fianna Fail. She has proved her vote-getting abilities, and her work in the North has been proof to some that beneath the stylishly groomed exterior lurks a substantial politician. One (male) commentator suggests that for a woman to be elected leader of either of the two major parties, she would have to "do a Margaret Thatcher" and become more macho than the male politicians themselves. Another (female) source points to the huge pressures on the family life of a senior politician (several senior Ministers and a number of party leaders have broken marriages) as one reason why the role of Taoiseach is not practical for women the way the role is structured today.

Of course, the woman who has reached furthest up the ladder of political power in the state is Tanaiste, Mary Harney. If, in what would be the political equivalent of a reverse business take-over, she was persuaded to rejoin FF at some point over the next decade, some would say she was an absolute shoo-in for Taoiseach.

Chief justice

Salary: £104,796

When next vacant: 2000

Appointed by: the government

Best bet: optimistically speaking 2000; if not, 2007

Paddy Powers's odds: apply to bookmaker

This job is the one that a woman, if the talk in political and legal circles is to be believed, is likely to secure sooner rather than later.

The current incumbent, Chief Justice Liam Hamilton, is set to retire within the next 12 months and Supreme Court judge Mrs Justice Susan Denham is one of those whose name is in the box marked "possible candidates".

The legal profession has not managed to shake its reputation as an impenetrable boys' club, but the speed with which relatively young female senior counsel are being appointed judges in recent years has gone some way to challenge that. Women now make up almost 23 per cent of judges. This has led to its own problems, though as all the bright female senior counsel are sent up the ranks the numbers of women on the front bench has stayed stagnant at only 8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the proportion of female barristers overall has increased from 5 per cent in 1968 to around 30 per cent last year. Some of the more high-profile female lawyers are Ms Justice Mary Laffoy and Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness.

While there are many political considerations surrounding the appointment of Chief Justice Hamilton's successor, most legal affairs commentators expect Mrs Justice Denham to be offered the post at some point before the end of her career. Whether she would accept it or not is another matter entirely.

National-newspaper editor

Salary: varies

Appointed by: the board of a newspaper

When next vacant: unknown

Best bet: 2004-ish

Paddy Powers's odds (on a female editor for The Irish Times when the position becomes vacant): 5/2

The closest any woman has come to being awarded the editorship of a national newspaper was four years ago when Emily O'Reilly, now editor of Magill magazine, was considered as a possible replacement for Vincent Browne at the Sunday Tribune.

She didn't get the job and, in a recent issue of Trinity College magazine Harlot, she claims there was gender discrimination involved in that decision. "I don't think Independent Newspapers could quite get their head round having a woman in that sort of position," she is quoted as saying.

While there is a marked absence of women in senior editorial roles in the State's newspapers there are some exceptions: Anne Harris is deputy editor of the Sunday Independent, Noirin Hegarty is second-in-command at the Evening Herald while other newspapers, including The Irish Times, have appointed women to assistant editor positions and Aileen O'Toole is deputy editor of the Business Post.

But the corollary remains that while many of the most successful, most well-known, working print journalists over the past 10 years have been women - Geraldine Kennedy, Veronica Guerin, Miriam Lord - except for O'Reilly, no woman has ever come close to taking over the editorial helm. It is only fairly recently that journalist Ciara Ryan became the second female boss of a local paper, when she was appointed editor of the Fingal Independent in 1997.

Catholic priest

Salary: £10-17,000

Appointed by: bishop

When next vacant: all the time

Best bet: 3000 (or when hell freezes over, which ever comes first)

Paddy Powers's odds (within five years): 8/1

The Catholic Church may no longer be one of the most influential employers in the State but it remains the last bastion of socially acceptable, State-supported, discrimination against women.

Forget ordinations by breakaway bishops and pop stars swapping the stage for the pulpit and try to imagine a time when Vatican-approved women clergy minister across the State.

It's almost unimaginable, but one source close to the church said that with the current fall in vocations the ordination of women is an avenue that will have to be explored. The Catholic Church has changed its position before (it used to support the practice of slavery and oppose the charging of interest on loans) but women priests could prove a U-turn too far.

Last September, the Church of Ireland welcomed its youngest female priest into the fold. In an interview Lynda Peilow (24) empathised with those women in the Catholic church who would like to become priests but are barred from donning the clerical collar. "I feel sorry for them. I mean, I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't have followed my calling."

The Church of Ireland also allows female bishops, but has none yet. A source hesitated to guess when a woman might wear a mitre but said that, should a position of bishop become vacant in the COI there will be plenty of women clergy qualified to fill the post.

Secretary general, ICTU

Salary: £45,000

Next vacant: upon retirement of the incumbent

Appointed by: the Executive Council

Best bet: 2005-ish Paddy Powers's odds: 1/4

`There has been progress in terms of women's representation at all levels in unions but it has been slower than it should have been," says a source inside ICTU.

But despite this, the person next in line for Peter Cassells's job as general secretary of ICTU, is a woman. Patricia O'Donovan is widely respected in the organisation and is viewed as a legitimate candidate for the job when it comes up, probably at some point over the next five years.

The head of education and training with the organisation is also a woman, as is the person in charge of equality and partnership. ICTU has introduced several policy initiatives designed to promote the role of women in trade unions. One of these obliges unions to send a quota of women representative of the female membership.

Meanwhile, there are four women on the Executive Council of the ICTU and two of these seats are set aside for women.

Governor, Central Bank

Salary: "Adjusted in line with chief executives of semi-state bodies"

Appointed by: the government

When vacant: 2001

Best bet: 2016

Paddy Powers's odds: 4/1

The position of governor of the Central Bank has traditionally been filled by a man at second secretary level in the Department of Finance and that is where any woman with her eye on the top banking job in the country is likely to be employed.

And there's the rub. The top ranks of the civil service are distinctly oestrogen-free and in Finance the situation is even worse.

Just under half of the 30,000 people employed in the civil service at the end of 1996 were women, according to the Women in the Labour Force survey. The majority of these, however, are employed at the level of clerical assistant, clerical officer and cleaner.

Within the Central Bank itself the situation is slightly less imbalanced, with currently four women, compared to 13 men, at deputy head-of-function level. On a more positive note, climbing up fast behind them are the middle managers, more than half of whom are female.

In fact, one woman, Mary Walsh, served as a non-executive director on the board of the bank until last year when her five-year term came to an end. But a woman governor any year soon? Don't bank on it.

Master, NMH

Salary: £86,906 (under negotiation)

Appointed by: the board of the National Maternity Hospital

When next vacant: 2004

Best bet: 2011

Any female obstetricians, and they are growing in number if not quite quickly enough for the women who want to avail of their services, should take heed of the words of the son of one past Master of a Dublin maternity hospital before putting in their application for the top job.

He says that as a child he could not remember one Christmas dinner where his father did not have to leave the table on receiving an urgent call from the hospital.

A source within Holles Street Hospital says the 24-hour-a-day nature of the job is a major disincentive to many women who would otherwise be both qualified for and interested in the job.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association estimates that approximately 25 per cent of all consultants in the Republic are female but this figure is lower in obstetrics. For most of the 1990s the percentage of female, full-time undergraduate medical students was around 60 per cent but women remain underrepresented as doctors and consultants. Last year only one woman applied for the position when the Master of the Coombe hospital post was advertised. There were no female applicants for the top job at Holles Street when it was advertised two years ago.