Unequal pay and opportunities are endemic in the food and retail sectors in a number of EU states, the conference was told.
"In these sectors women appear to have poorer promotion prospects for reasons that are not apparent," according to a report on pay differentials in the Republic, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Finland, presented to the conference. "There is very little recognition among retail firms in particular that any issue exists regarding equality."
It proposes "gender-proofing" systems of promotion and higher level recruitment in such sectors, and also gender monitoring of recruitment and promotion.
In sectors where technical qualifications are essential, like the IT sector, women face an immediate problem due to their relative lack of such qualifications. "Action on this matter must extend back into the schools system and to gender stereotyping in educational and career choices," according to the report.
The study found that, even in countries like Finland and Sweden with a long tradition of equality legislation, there is a persistent gap between male and female earnings.
While some of this could be explained by occupational segregation, with women concentrated in lower-paid occupations and lower-paid posts, there was also an "unexplained" component which could not be explained by differences in skills, education or even occupation.
This could be due to discrimination, but could also be partly due to the fact that women are less mobile and less able to move around in search of the best employment than men.