The proportion of women judges, senior counsel and senior partners remains low enough to suggest that the journey towards women's equality is only half over, the President, Mrs McAleese, told the conference.
Champions of such equality were still needed, she said, because "the law, no less than any other sphere, will be the richer for availing of all the talent, imagination and expertise at its disposal. The reverse also holds true, for as long as talent lies untapped, we are individually and collectively impoverished."
Introducing the President, Ms Justice Denham said that it was the third anniversary since her inauguration as president in the same place. Mrs McAleese said that having a woman president had long lost its shock value, adding: "Small boys are now rumoured to plaintively ask their mothers if men are eligible to apply for the position."
She recalled that when she sought to become a barrister there were no women at the Northern Ireland bar, and had not been for about 20 years. She was one of three women called to the bar there in 1972. At the time all law students were encouraged to read a book called Learning the Law by Granville Williams, who wrote that for an aspiring female barrister "the prejudice of the solicitor and the prejudice of the solicitor's lay client" were "inexpungable".
When she looked at the young women of her daughter's generation and marvelled at their self-confidence, she wondered if they understood the fight that had been waged. "We are nearer than we have ever been to enabling the full genius of women to blossom. But we still have a long, long distance to go."
Speaking at a reception to mark the conference, the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, said: "There are glass ceilings. There are inhibitions at the top. But push forward on all fronts. As far as I'm concerned it will be reciprocated. I interpret the 1974 Act (outlawing discrimination) as meaning that State briefing practice should be rid of all discriminatory practices."
Opening the conference, Miss Justice Carroll of the High Court recalled the High Court judgment at the beginning of the century which ruled against Georgie Frost's challenge to the exclusion of women from the law and public service. This had rested upon considerations of " `fitness and decorum', the `don't worry your pretty head' syndrome".
An example was that when she was called to the bar in 1957 she was told by older barristers she should not go into the Court of Criminal Appeal because it was not suitable for her. "In fact I didn't go, because my interests were elsewhere," she said, adding: "I first went into it as a judge."
Very few women of her generation had stayed at the bar, she said. It was the generation of Mary Robinson and Susan Denham who came and stayed. "Now pregnant women can come into the library and stay. Before they would have been told to stay at home and out of sight."