Men in Ireland work on average 43 hours per week while women work on average 31 hours per week, according to a new report.
This 12-hour "gender gap" is the joint highest in the EU along with the Netherlands, where men work on average 38 hours per week and women work on average 26 hours per week, according to the survey.
In comparison, men in France work just four hours longer on average than women while Portuguese men work just two hours longer than their female counterparts.
Dr Brendan Burchell, one of the authors of the report, said the high "gender gap" in working hours was probably linked to the high rate of part-time women workers in Ireland.
"This can be positive by offering women a better work/life balance but on the other hand it can be a trap for women. It means they do not benefit from the same pay rises and promotion as men and they lose out on more satisfying types of work," he said.
Men continue to dominate senior management positions in the Irish labour market and work much longer hours outside the home than women, according to the report. Less than a third of senior management jobs in the Republic (31 per cent) are in the hands of women, which represents a drop of five percentage points since 2000.
The imbalance in senior positions in Ireland is replicated across the EU where little has changed since the early 1990s despite several attempts to root out gender discrimination.
Gender and Working Conditions in the European Union says women still shoulder the bulk of household duties such as cleaning and childcare.
There is also a high level of gender segregation in people's working lifestyles, with women generally earning less and struggling to become senior managers. This lifestyle pattern must change if women are to have equal opportunities in the world of work, concludes the report, which was compiled following interviews with 30,000 workers across Europe.
The report, which was commissioned by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, says that more than a quarter of Irish men are working more than 48 hours per week.
In comparison, just 8 per cent of Irish women work more than 48 hours per week outside the home, although they spend much more time than men looking after children, relatives and cleaning.
Some 38 per cent of employed women provide care for children on a daily basis, three-quarters of these women cook or do housework each day and 9 per cent provide care to elderly or disabled relatives every day or every other day, says the report.
Job satisfaction rates remain high for both genders with 81 per cent of men and 84 per cent of women in Europe saying they were either satisfied or very satisfied with their job.
Working in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Cyprus or Malta appears to have a positive impact on recorded job satisfaction, says the report.