THE President, Mrs Robinson, has said women on the margins of society must not be ignored in the struggle for sexual equality and that "the glass floor, not just the glass ceiling" must be tackled.
She was speaking in Belfast at a conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the Northern Ireland Equal Opportunities Commission. Mrs Robinson chaired the commission's first conference in 1977. About 200 people attended.
She said great strides had been made in the past two decades but women outside the system, who suffered the worst effects of inequality, must not be forgotten.
As the 21st century neared there was still work to be done to ensure the "gender dimension" was considered in policy-making. Women's needs must be addressed in education, training, employment, transport and other areas, she said.
Mrs Robinson welcomed the trend for an increased proportion of EU structural funds to be targeted at women and for the Peace and Reconciliation Initiative for Northern Ireland to take account of women.
She praised the commission's work over the past 20 years and recalled attending its first conference in 1977 when it was breaking new ground. She paid tribute to the women who had worked for the organisation and those who had taken cases and sometimes paid a high price for their actions.
There had been positive developments in the North recently, she said. The Women's Coalition had been set up, women's issues were debated at a political level more regularly and women's networks had sprung up everywhere, often with cross-Border links.
The chairwoman of the commission said more than 14,000 people had come to it for help since its formation.
Ms Joan Smyth said: "By having the courage and determination to ask us to help them challenge discrimination, they have helped to make society fairer."
She said that 20 years ago - 42 per cent of women worked outside the home or were looking for work today it was 50 per cent. Women now made up half the workforce, compared to 40 per cent in 1976.
Only 12 per cent of members of public bodies were women then but a third were now. Girls were outperforming boys in most subjects at GCSE level.
Women made up 45 per cent of medical students, compared to a third in 1977. There were more female than male undergraduates today and nearly half of all post-graduates were women.
However, women remained seriously under-represented at all levels of decision-making. There had not been a woman MP in Northern Ireland for over 20 years and there had never been a woman MEP. Only 12 per cent of councillors were women, an increase of only 4 per cent in 20 years.
After addressing the conference, Mrs Robinson visited Methodist College in Stranmillis where she met members of the school's current affairs society.