Male social workers are more likely to work with the mentally ill and with children, while women work with the elderly and also with children, the conference was told. However, men are also more likely than women to hold senior positions.
Mr Alistair Christie, who is about to take up a position in the Social Work Department of University College, Cork, examined the statistics for women and men in social work in Denmark and the UK.
There was now a push to get more men to do social work, especially with children, he said. It was often argued that this could be beneficial because of the "absent father" syndrome, and need of children for male role models. At the same time, this was opposed in certain quarters because of instances of sexual abuse of children in care by men.
He questioned whether male social workers could be a substitute for an absent father. He also said the argument was part of blaming single mothers for being inadequate parents.
The discussion of the role of men in social work tended to push people into polarised positions, he said. It would be more fruitful for social work practitioners to examine the role of men in society overall, and place male social workers in that context, he said.
Mr Kieran McGrath, a senior social worker in Temple Street Hospital, who chaired the session, said in his work with young sex offenders it was considered essential to have a male and female social worker working together.
One reason was the need to show how men and women could resolve conflict without aggression, because some of the young offenders had never seen this in their families. Sometimes they even created conflicts in order to resolve them in front of the group.
In child-care and fostering, men were afraid of false allegations of sexual abuse. They were also now very unsure of how to behave around children.
"In the past, people didn't think twice about giving children a hug. Now they do. So we're naturally going through a period of adjustment following the incidents of abuse which have been discovered," he said.