No glass ceiling for Ireland's female high-fliers

Women in Dublin seem to fare better in finance than women in London.

Paul Cotter of Joslin Rowe says his agency places more women than men - but insists women have always been on a more equal footing: "The City of London - where I recruited for nearly 15 years - has decades of tradition to overcome - but financial services here are young. When the US firms arrived, they simply embedded policies and cultures on a relatively clean slate."

Andrea Clarkson, manager at Premier Recruitment, says Ireland's financial services employers are reaching out to women for the long haul: "There are more job-shares available and some organisations now offer full maternity pay."

That's not to say they'll bend over backwards to accommodate the mother who wants to work three mornings a week: "International firms prefer not to hide that they require people to work longer hours - which cuts out those needing a tailored work/life balance," says Clarkson. "Domestic banks are more likely to promote themselves as good places for women to work in that respect."

But Jennifer Richards, head of Standard Life Investments in Ireland, believes women are not hard done by: "If you look at the actual numbers there may be fewer of us, but that's not indicative of huge under-representation. Many women occupy extremely high-profile positions."

And in any case, when flexible working arrangements do exist, it's not only women who benefit: "Some people commute for up to two hours - it's a feature of Dublin life, whether you're a working mum or a man with no dependants," says Richards. "I wouldn't attribute employer flexibility to trying to redress any imbalance between the sexes - it just makes sense."