New figures from the Central Statistics Office confirm that the vast majority of women who work part-time want to work part-time and are not seeking full-time work.

The figures, contained in the latest Quarterly National Household Survey, found that 73pc of part-time working women say they are not underemployed as against only 27pc of women in part-time work who say they are “underemployed”.

This confirms research by academics such as Dr Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics who says that most women choose a different work/life balance compared with most men.

The fact that so many women choose to work part-time is a major reason for the existence of a pay-gap between men and women.

The CSO figures also show that over a third of Irish working women work part-time as against only 12 percent of men.

According to the data, 296,000 women work part-time as against 129,000 men. The total number of women and men in work is 841,000 and 967,000 respectively.

Figures released by the European Commission last week show that on average women in Ireland earn 17 percent less than men. This figure is in line with the EU average. 

Orla O’Connor, acting CEO of the National Women’s Council, suggested that the pay gap here was in part due to a lack of affordable day-care.

However, the gap is only one per cent higher than in Sweden, which has easily available, State-subsidised day-care.

In Sweden as in Ireland, a major reason for the gender pay gap is the fact that many Swedish women choose to work part-time.

International research shows that on average a fifth of women want to work full-time all their lives, a fifth would prefer to look after their children at home full-time, and the remainder want something in between.