The Women's Coalition today attacked the British government and main political parties for the lack of female representation on the new Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Members of the Women's Coalition expressed outrage that just two women were represented on the 19-member board which held its first meeting this week.
Of the nine government appointees to the board, just two were female, while the main parties did not include a woman among the 10 political nominees.
The stinging criticism came from Assembly member Professor Monica McWilliams at the Women's Coalition annual conference in Bangor, Co Down.
She said: "Both the Northern Ireland Office and the other parties should explain themselves, given everything that has been done on women and decision making in Northern Ireland."
She called on the Chief Constable to ensure that women were adequately represented among the new recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
"If the police are to move away from a hierarchical, predominantly military command structure towards a more problem-solving community style of policing, then they should have a less macho, more problem-solving approach to their work," she said.
Prof McWilliams also condemned the fact that there were no women on the Parades Commission, set up to rule on controversial marches.
She demanded that this be addressed when a review of the commission takes place.
In her keynote address to the conference, the South Belfast MLA described last month's decision by the IRA to begin decommissioning as momentous.
"The IRA have declared their faith in the political process which is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness," she said.
And she called for a speedy formation of an Implementation Committee to manage the Belfast Agreement - one of the Women's Coalition proposals accepted at all-party talks at Weston Park in August.
She continued: "We have had enough of endless summits at Hillsborough Castle and Weston Park. We need to resolve our problems together.
"The message has to be that it is up to us to develop that ‘esprit de corps' and the mindsets back to what we stand for."
Earlier, Assembly colleague Jane Morrice defended the Women's Coalition decision to redesignate in order to help Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble become re-elected as First Minister.
Prof McWilliams said the party had always considered the possibility of re-designating in order to save the Belfast Agreement.
"Two years ago at our annual conference in Newcastle I stated that we were prepared to consider the issue of re-designating - it was reported then that we would use it when the time came to do so," she said.
Despite criticism that the Stormont Assembly has lost credibility because of the political manoeuvrings of the past week or so, Prof McWilliams said the party had given politics a good name by re-designating.
"We moved quickly to ensure that the Agreement did not break down over technicalities ... so when we are asked what we did when it came down to the wire - then we can say we played an honourable role," she added.
PA