The women's rights officer of USI has been accused of "dwelling on the feminist movement of the 1970s" by a female students' union vice-president.

Yvonne Guerin, senior deputy president of Athlone IT students' union, has invited Emma Dowling to attend a meeting of her union on foot of the USI officer's claim that women's full participation in union meetings is hampered by the conduct of their male colleagues.

In an interview with E&L last month, Dowling said women's voices were sometimes drowned out at local union council meetings because "the boys tend to shout louder than the girls". She said this was a contributing factor to the low participation of female students in students' union politics.

At present no university students' union president is female and all but one of the overall IT students' union presidents is a male. In USI itself, only three of the nine full-time officers are female, holding the portfolios for women's rights, welfare and lesbian, gay and bisexual issues. Guerin says she has not experienced the union culture described by Dowling. The officer's comments, Guerin says, "did nothing to further the women's rights movement . . . if anything it pushes it back another step". Guerin added that she has "never felt any intimidation while speaking, nor has my voice ever been drowned out by `the shouting of the boys'." Her experience in national and local students' union politics is that "female participants are articulate and very capable of debating the issues.

"Perhaps if Ms Dowling conducted more extensive research into the reasons why women don't get actively involved in student politics instead of reiterating the same over-used rhetoric we've all heard before, the women's movement could begin to change and reflect the views of women in Ireland today rather than dwelling upon the feminist movement of the 1970s," Guerin said.

Dowling's analysis has also been questioned by Norma Ni Luinneachain, vice-president and welfare officer of the NUI Galway students' union, formerly her union's women's rights officer.

She says male students are alienated from equality issues when women's rights officers "come out with very radical feminist views.

"We've progressed from the whole feminist movement of the 1970s. Four of the 11 students' union officers in NUI Galway are female, and men involved in the students' union have gone to great lengths to ensure women speak at meetings and have encouraged us to do so.

"I know women are underrepresented in student unions at the moment, but I think what Emma said about how male students behave at council meetings made it sound like it was very difficult for women to voice their opinions. It would be better to give women a more positive view of what we do in student politics.

"Students' unions aren't the only institutions where women are underrepresented. The appointment of a woman as dean of science here recently got national attention because it's so rare to see a female hold such a major position in a university."

Dowling responded to the criticism of her comments by saying: "There are many women who are confident enough to speak at union meetings, but there are many others who aren't. It's up to those who aren't daunted by participating in student politics to encourage those who are."

She is in the preliminary stages of preparing a questionnaire on the needs of female students and hopes to start the research before Christmas.