That was the analysis of Dr Maeve Houlihan of University College Dublin business school, as well as business consultant Anne Kennedy, who operates from home.

"Unfortunately the role of women as carers for their children still does not fit well into the corporate system, " said Kennedy. "But for those who are self-starters and entrepreneurial, who have set up their own companies, I have no doubt it has been massively liberating. In the past many of these women would have put their career on hold for family reasons and not climbed up the corporate ladder as a result. Now they are essentially creating their own corporate structure, " she added.

Kennedy is one of a growing number of women who are running their entire business from home through improvements in communications technology. Another is Nicola Byrne, managing director of phone directory company 11890. She carries out most of her work from home while looking after three children.

"I get even more work done because I am free of the office distractions, " she told the Sunday Tribune. She says she would not be in business if she could not work from home.

"If I couldn't work from home I just simply wouldn't have a career. That's how important it is. Women are the primary care givers, I think that's just nature.

Women are probably more likely to take time off work to deal with family issues. My kids only spend about 12 hours a week in care. But I would rather give up my career than have them in fulltime care, " she said.

However the ability of mothers to work from home is something of a doubleedged sword when it comes to addressing the gender imbalance on company boards.

Becoming a mother, in many instances, still weakens a woman's promotional prospects.

Byrne admits that even she would be critical of mothers in the workplace.

"I think if I was a boss in a company and saw a mother taking time off because of a sick child, I'd even be saying things like , 'My god she's off again'. Even if you would get twice as much work done at home, you would still lose out in an office sense: out of sight out of mind, " she said.

Dr Maeve Houlihan, who lectures in organisational behaviour, says working mothers will suffer from lack of 'political exposure' within a company.

"There are great exceptions to this now, thankfully, but still in many businesses the power structure is totally male. The women who do get ahead almost have to abandon some of their feminine qualities or else it is very difficult, " she said. "It is even harder if you are working from home because the lack of face-time and political exposure in an organisation will work against them. "The less time you are there, the less time there is for you to fit with the company and be seen to be doing a good job."

Houlihan feels there is a growing argument for gender quotas to be enforced on company boards, even if it does create difficulties for the women involved .

"Positive discrimination is very tricky and there are negative connotations for the groups involved. I think you need an initiative like that to get the ball rolling so that for the next generation, women CEOs will be seen as far more normal."