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The Male Geek Is Not the Only Image of Success in the Tech World The image of the Silicon Valley innovation in the media-the young entrepreneur, computer programmer or engineer-is often a white male geek, the kind of guy made famous by The Social Network, a dramatic account of the founding of Facebook by Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg. In the film, women are decorative, fashionable and pretty, getting drunk at parties and looking to snare-not be-the next billionaire.

Women Are Probably the Most Important Demographic for the Tech Industry It turns out women are our new lead adopters. When you look at internet usage, it turns out women in Western countries use the internet 17 percent more every month than their male counterparts. Women are more likely to be using the mobile phones they own, they spend more time talking on them, they spend more time using location-based services. But they also spend more time sending text messages. Women are the fastest growing and largest users on Skype, and that's mostly younger women. Women are the fastest-growing category and biggest users on every social networking site with the exception of LinkedIn. Women are the vast majority of owners of all internet enabled devices-readers, healthcare devices, GPS-that whole bundle of technology is mostly owned by women.

Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech If you're a man between the ages of 18 and 35, you used to be tech industry's most coveted prize. You were the one who decided what products failed and what products succeeded. That's why companies like Asus tweet ridiculous, sexist stuff. That's one reason why less than 10 percent of venture capital-backed companies have female founders and there is a massive gender gap in tech. The technology industry's focus on men is reflexive and all too intuitive to the men who run the companies. And it's built on a plain wrong reading of the reality of the market.

Women in Technology Revisited Perhaps the greatest irony of the matter of women in IT (and other technology-related fields) is the almost incessant calls for what amounts to social engineering. A desire to allow women to pursue careers in IT without hassles or roadblocks simply because they are women has given way to a drive to all but con women into technology careers in order to satisfy western egalitarian sensibilities. So what's the irony? A paternalistic upper class that looks not at individuals (women or men), but at groups.

How To Fix the Gender Gap in Technology The United States has produced viable female presidential candidates, women athletes who command millions of dollars in endorsements, and the first female Nobel economist. Yet there is still no female equivalent of a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg. Women continue to lag behind men in computer science, where their share of the workforce has actually declined over the past 25 years. Today, women hold 27 percent of all CS jobs, down from 30 percent a decade ago, and account for just 20 percent of undergraduate CS majors, down from 36 percent in 1986. The tech gap begins at home, where boys get their first computers and video game consoles at a younger age than girls and are more likely to play with toys that build spatial reasoning skills, like Lego

Here's the Real Reason There Are Not More Women in Technology Ask someone to tell you the reasons that there are not more women in technology positions and chances are they will point to one of the numerous articles written lately. They usually start with 'top 10 reasons why women' or 'break the glass ceiling by'. But instead of doing the hard research, they produce the literary equivalent of 'all flash and no substance'. To understand the reasons and circumstances of the issue, we must go beyond the pretexts to an examination of the occupational conditions for women throughout their life. And I chose to discuss it with 10 successful women that have all made it to the top of their professions in technical related fields.

How women are changing the tech world The emergence of young female tech founders and executives reflects sweeping change in the worlds of start-up companies and angel funding, where wealthy investors give money in return for a stake in a company. It underscores the enormous purchasing prowess of women online that is transforming the Web economy. As more consumers reach for their smartphones and tablets to shop and communicate, there is a pressing need for commerce sites that cater to women, who control 70% of online purchases worldwide, according to Lisa Stone, CEO of BlogHer, a digital media company.

Women engineers trace tech gender gap to childhood Silicon Valley companies portray themselves as inventors of the future, but they're afflicted by a longstanding problem. From board rooms to ''brogrammers,'' men still dominate many corners of the tech industry, where the pantheon of famous founders - from Hewlett and Packard to Jobs to Zuckerberg - is still a boys' bastion. The gender-imbalance issue came to the forefront again recently when a partner at the country's most prominent venture capital firm filed a sexual harassment lawsuit alleging a former colleague retaliated against her for years after she cut off a brief relationship with him. The firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has denied the allegations.

Ruchi Sanghvi: Facebook's pioneer woman Ruchi Sanghvi was 23 years old when she became the first female engineer at Facebook. She developed the news feed and saw the company grow from a small start-up into the world's biggest social network. Despite her successful career in Silicon Valley, she says when she decided to pursue engineering, she was confronted with old-fashioned views.

New Study Reveals Gender Leadership Biases According to new research, IPO firms with male CEOs get the advantage with investors, compared to those with female CEOs. This news probably comes as no surprise, but the nuances revealed by the study point to a conclusion that should be concerning to anyone who works in a field characterized by the term ''meritocracy.'' More and more research is showing that gender weighs heavily on the equation when it comes to jobs, promotions, paychecks, and -in the case of the study- how much investors are willing to pour into a business. A working paper recently released by researchers from the University of Utah and Washington University in St. Louis suggests that female led IPO firms do worse than male ones. The study says, ''Despite identical personal qualifications and firm financials, female Founder/CEOs were perceived as less capable than their male counterparts, and IPOs led by female Founder/CEOs were considered less attractive investments.''

Female force in tech start-ups The women-in-IT cause may not have progressed much since the 1980s but a new generation of technology company leaders is putting women, technical and non-technical, at the forefront of industry decision making. The University of Wollongong's overall student population is half female but only 5 per cent of those studying computer science are women, says Elizabeth Eastland, the university's director of technology transfer and research.

Fewer women in top U.S. tech jobs since 2010 The number of women in senior technology positions at U.S. companies is down for the second year in a row, according to a survey published on Monday. Nine percent of U.S. chief information officers (CIOs) are female, down from 11 percent last year and 12 percent in 2010, according to the survey by the U.S. arm of British technology outsourcing and recruitment company Harvey Nash Group. About 30 percent of those polled said their information technology (IT) organization has no women at all in management. Yet only about half of survey respondents consider women to be under-represented in the IT department.

Engineering entrepreneur calls for stepped-up efforts to mentor women in technical fields An engineering entrepreneur and leading advocate for STEM education for women says the U.S. is not doing enough to encourage female students to pursue career paths in technical areas. Karen Purcell, author of Unlocking Your Brilliance: Smart Strategies for Women to Thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, argues that a lack of focus on encouraging women to enter science, technology, engineering, and math fields is a significant reason for what she says is lagging U.S.performance in fields that call for technical skills. In her book, Purcell acknowledges that opportunities for exposure to STEM education have increased dramatically over the past 20 years, but says more needs to be done to encourage female students to enter technical fields. She calls for stepped-up mentoring efforts for girls by those in STEM fields, especially in out of school programs that are gaining in popularity.

Can Tech Companies Continue To Innovate With No Women At The Table? Women dominate social networks, according to the latest Nielsen report. This is not news. Women have been ruling social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and social gaming platforms for the past few years. Women also bring in half or more of the income in 55% of U.S. households. And women ages 50 and older control a net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation's financial wealth, according to MassMutual Financial Group. Simply put, women are influential and drive the economy.

Words Of Wisdom From Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard CEO In the way that Hillary Clinton's popularity rating has increased with time (and the one-week Internet meme sensation Texts from Hillary), perhaps Meg Whitman's star is still rising. Best known as eBay's veteran CEO - she joined the company when it had only 30 employees in 1998 - Meg ran eBay as CEO for 10 years and scaled the company to over 15,000 employees and 8 billion dollars in revenue. She took the company public and currently sits on the board of directors at Proctor & Gamble, Teach for America, Zipcar and Hewlett-Packard, where she is now the CEO.

Women in Tech (Infographic) Although the tech industry has been dubbed a 'boys club,' women are slowly working their way in the door ... which is fantastic! This infographic tells the whole story.

Stereotypes keep women away from science A gender gap in science and engineering fields persists, in part, due to stereotypes that prevent more women from choosing these areas in their careers. Despite some progress in recent years, the gap hasn't shifted much. But that's not stopping some groups from tackling the issue. According to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, women make up 58 per cent of the total students enrolled in Canadian universities, yet only 37 per cent enrolled in science and engineering programs are women.

Nigeria: World Leaders Chart Roadmap for Female ICT Education Nigerian information technology (IT) practitioners met to dissect why few females students were taking up science and technology courses in institutions of higher learning and only a handful were playing active roles in the sector. Also, global leaders from the United States of America, Europe, Africa and Asia at the same time joined in a debate to define a roadmap that will help break down barriers and overturn outmoded attitudes in a bid to get more girls into technology-related studies and careers.

Safety in numbers: women still need support to succeed in technology While some women have clawed their way to the top in the male-dominated information technology sector, others continue to turn to networking and support groups for help, prompting one organisation to call for a national initiative to recruit and retain women. From HP and IBM global chiefs Meg Whitman and Virginia Rometty to Microsoft Australia's managing director Pip Marlow and Intel's newly installed Australia and New Zealand general manager Kate Burleigh, high achieving women have demonstrated that they can run the high-tech world.

What Will It Take to Get More Women Execs in IT? Women still make up a woefully small percentage of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professionals. IDGE CEO Michael Friendenberg wonders if the tide will change soon.

Technology firms make the grade as top female employers Providing equal opportunities to women has been a mainstream topic in the past 12 months, with Lord Davies' review into women on boards, and a list has now been published giving the names of the country's best female employers. The annual Top 50 Employers for Women has been revealed by The Times and Opportunity Now, highlighting the UK organisations that are leading the way in gender equality in the workplace.

Inside the Silicon Valley Gender Gap Young women tech entrepreneurs explain the hurdles, subtle and not, to reaching the top.

Women Make Groups Smarter, But the Gender Disparity Remains> ''There's little correlation between a group's collective intelligence and the IQs of its individual members. But if a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises,'' was the finding of a study published by the Harvard Business Review. The finding begs the question: Why do women continue to be under represented in the growing tech industry - a space that continues to be both founded and funded overwhelmingly by men?

White House Report: More Women Need to Study STEM The White House Council on Women and Girls found that women who work in STEM fields make about a third more than women in non-STEM jobs. The council wrote that it's ''especially disconcerting'' that women make up only 25 percent of the STEM workforce, which is expected to grow by nearly 20 percent over the rest of the decade.

Computer Science for the Rest of Us Many professors of computer science say college graduates in every major should understand software fundamentals. They don't argue that everyone needs to be a skilled programmer. Rather, they seek to teach ''computational thinking'' - the general concepts programming languages employ. In 2006, Jeannette M. Wing, head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote a manifesto arguing that basic literacy should be redefined to include understanding of computer processes. ''Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists,'' she wrote. ''To reading, writing and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child's analytical ability.''

Tech Firms Failing in Their Outreach to Women Attracting women to computer science jobs at technology firms isn't easy, even though computer science degrees go to, on average, 18 percent women. Part of the problem, say those familiar with the hiring process, is with the recruiting itself. Some women are put off when they go for interviews and are interviewed only by men and a male culture.

People in CTO jobs 'must boost female representation' People working in chief technology officer jobs and other leadership roles have been told to boost their female representation in order to keep up with the consumer technology market. Technology research firm Gartner has identified the ten consumer trends that will shape the technology, media and service provider markets in the next decade. It claimed that the markets are being redefined by consumer expectations and values.

How to Solve the Tech Hiring Problem: Ask Women Though women make up half the U.S. workforce, they hold only 25 percent of jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics - a disparity that's especially disconcerting given frequent complains from tech executives who can't find enough qualified applicants.To help connect companies with talented women, the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology released a reportcontaining specific and actionable advice for companies. If you're in any kind of hiring position in the tech world, you should read it and start correcting the common mistakes it identifies, whether a narrow recruiting process that fails to reach qualified candidates or a company culture that doesn't welcome female employees.

Women Increasing Role as Science, Tech Innovators, Female entrepreneurs are flexing their intellectual muscles like never before, new research shows A study by the National Women's Business Council (NWBC) found the number of women awarded federal patents and trademarks, often considered an indicator of entrepreneurial activity, has soared in recent years.

Winning the Future with Women & Girls Women have made huge strides in our quest for equal standing in the U.S. workforce, and today we fill nearly 50% of all jobs in the nation. But the story is very different in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), where women still constitute less than 25% of workers.This is a bit perplexing given the increase of college-educated women in the workforce over the last decade, the fact that women in STEM jobs earn 33% more than our counterparts in non-STEM jobs, and the relatively small gap between men's and women's wages in STEM fields compared to other fields. Many factors likely contribute to ongoing male dominance in STEM jobs, and some of these, including lingering stereotypical perceptions that science and engineering are the domains of men and the lack of family-friendly flexibility in STEM workplaces, are direct targets of Obama Administration actions.

Female technologist finds her funny side for charity A female technologist who in her day job lectures computer science at the University of Nottingham and researches artificial immune systems, is taking on stand-up comedy for her latest project.

The One College Degree Where Women Make More Than Men Link to the video about Women With Bachelor's Degrees In Information Technology who get paid more than male co-workers.

Women in Tech: Evelyn Graham advises women to ''Keep on Trying.'' Women business owners are a statistical minority. But they are also major players in business. If U.S. women business owners were their own country, it would be the 5th largest GDP in the world. The estimated 8 million majority women-owned businesses in the U.S. wield an economic impact of over $2.8 trillion annually and employ more than 23 million people .Being part of this statistical minority is both a positive and a negative force. I have to constantly remind myself to reject the invincibility of the stereotype that it's a man's world and you have to be a member of the old boys club to succeed. Admittedly, it's not a woman's world, but attitude is about 80% of success. Despite the prominence of the glass ceiling, there are increasingly more women CEOs and executive managers in technology, and they are successful by any benchmark. These women are role models who give the rest of us the energy and momentum to push through and go for it despite the obstacles.

Geek girls help pave way for women entrepreneurs Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, will be the next Internet woman billionaire when the company goes public, and her stated mission is to encourage women to find their ''nner geek.'' But Silicon Valley is not the only place that has smart, technical women.

Why Your Next Board Member Should Be A Woman Good questions have been asked lately of tech companies without gender diversity on their boards of directors. While women comprise 51% of the population, they make up only 15.7% of Fortune 500 boards of directors, less than 10% of California tech company boards, and 9.1% of Silicon Valley boards.

When Scientists Choose Motherhood An article explanis a single factor that goes a long way in explaining the dearth of women in math-intensive fields.

U.S. needs to spark girls' interest in technology President Obama and American firms have every reason to be concerned about the number of Americans who are pursuing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In the United States, 30 percent of bachelor degrees are awarded in scientific disciplines, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF), compared with 50 percent in Asia. Moreover, the U.S. has experienced a five percent decline between 2000 and 2006 in the number of foreign students relocating here to pursue those careers.

Innovation & Gender Authors of this book argue that a gender perspective can strengthen innovation environments and they make a strong innovation case for gender diversity.

Supporting Women Returning to ICT - A UK Case Study The International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, GST Vol 3, No 2 (2011) presents a report about the initiative ran in the UK and Ireland as part of a national campaign (RETURN) to address the UK government's concern about women failing to return to SET careers after a break. The project realized an innovative online course which the UKRC and the Open University ran together between 2005 and 2011. The course, titled was a success, with a significant number of participants successfully returning to work. However, author Clem Herman points out the importance of including 'soft outcomes', such as increased confidence, as well as non-paid work outside of the labour market. The UKRC tracked a range of 19 positive outcomes for women using their services between 2008 and 2011.The report describes how the UKRC undertook a 'social return on investment' (SROI) review, which takes into account the wider implications of interventions and initiatives.

Wanted: Young women to work in high-tech sector Women represent a quarter of the ICT workforce, a statistic that hasn't changed in 10 years. At a time when we're surrounded with information about job loss and organizations teetering on the brink, the ICT industry is pulling out all stops to woo young women to tech to help fill more than 100,000 jobs expected to be created in Canada in the next five years.

Women in Tech: Jennifer Brace has a better idea Introducing Jennifer Brace, user interface engineer at Ford Motor Company. She offers insight on how women might need technology to be designed with different needs in mind.

Why women are leading the transformation of IT Until just a few years ago, CIOs have largely been defined by how well they could deliver products or solutions to their core customer, the business user. However, as the cloud emerges as a truly viable alternative to IT, it has become clear that the transformative CIO must rethink the entire IT paradigm and evolve his or her organization into one that delivers competitive services to the business. This new strategy requires not only a very different approach, but also quite literally a different mindset. In my current role at technology business management provider Apptio, we're seeing an increasing number of women taking the helm of IT organizations, which makes me wonder whether women possess certain qualities that make them particularly well suited to this role of services transformation.

Breaking the Silicon Ceiling: Women Innovate Mobile Glass has been, for decades, the proverbial barrier separating capable women from oak-paneled boardrooms. As many, including men, work to shatter it they should be aware of another proverbial material, not as transparent or delicate, standing in the ladies' way: silicon. Silicon is the key element in tech devices. And tech devices, along with the start-ups behind them, are the zeitgeist. Tech start-ups have captured everyone's attention, from investors to policymakers to college sophomores. With companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook as the main job and wealth creators America has seen in the last decade that is no surprise. The United States needs jobs and wealth. That is what a new accelerator, Women Innovate Mobile, launching in New York is focused on.

Women in Tech: Manuela Hutter sees endless possibilities Introducing Manuela Hutter, Interface Developer at Opera Software. Her profile is the first in a new Women in Tech series.

Fear of Hard Work Steers Students Away From Science & Tech While job opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions may be plentiful, many teenagers are unwilling to pursue a long-term career in these fields due to the challenges they present. According to a new study conducted by ASQ, students in sixth through twelfth grade felt that careers as doctors and engineers would offer the most job opportunities upon graduating from college, but 67 percent were unsure if they would pursue these careers, due to the numerous challenges they present.

FOSS' Factious Gender Divide There's no denying that the FOSS community has many virtues, but gender equality doesn't seem to be one of them. Gender-related issues and tensions have plagued the FOSS world for as long as many of us can remember, and the problem has already been picked apart on these pages time, time and time again. Well guess what? It's still a problem -- at least, if recent discussion in the blogosphere is anything to go by.

Top ten computer science teaching resources A pioneering head of ICT shares some fantastic routes into teaching children code and computing.

Women's role in science technology jobs takes centre stage at Indian event role of women in science has been the focus of attention at an event in India as the government and industry work to provide more opportunities for female scientists. At the 99th Indian Science Congress in Calcutta the theme was about inclusive innovation and prime minister Manmohan Singh used his speech to highlight the vital steps the country needs to take to encourage more women to pursue science careers.

The Importance of STEM in Encouraging the Next Generation of Tech Leaders The importance of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM as it's commonly known, can't be underestimated in preparing students for an increasingly technological tomorrow. By 2018, the U.S. will have more than 1.2 million job openings in STEM-related fields according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Regretfully, there is likely to be a significant shortage of qualified college graduates to fill them. Consequently, Microsoft has established several initiatives to help improve student skills in STEM and to encourage youth to pursue careers in the technology industry.

Seeking Female Founders In The Tech Startup Scene More often than not, when we hear about hot tech companies, all the founders are male (see: Google, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga). But in an effort to change that profile, a new funding source is targeting companies founded by women. Kelly Hoey thinks a lot of investors may be missing some good business opportunities because they aren't coming from someone who looks like the next Mark Zuckerberg.

Women's progress in the boardroom 'has flatlined' Progress for women in IT Jobs and across all sectors in achieving equality at the top of business has stalled, with the number of women being appointed to senior boardrooms having 'flatlined'. This is according to Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, one of few women who have reached the top of the world's largest companies. Speaking to The Times, she said that gender equality in the City was improving during the 70s, 80s and 90s but has since slowed. At the same time, however, she stressed that women have made huge gains in academia and medicine, but not in business. 

How Universities Fail Women Inventors An experiment shows that, given the same invention, tech transfer officers are less likely to spin off a company if the idea comes from a woman.

ECWT to play a key role in Arab Women in ICT Summit follow-up The first Arab Women in ICT Summit was held with high-level involvement of over 500 participants the 6-7 December 2011 in Rabat, Morocco.The event was organized by IDC and ISESCO in collaboration with Dell, Intel, UN Women, UNDP, UNESCWA CAWTAR, World Bank, ITU, Fondation Mohammed VI and the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT). Participants included several Ministers of IT from the Arab World, major ICT vendors, female ICT researchers and entrepreneurs, NGOs and students.

Women in Technology: Microsoft Israel case study What is is like to be a woman in a high tech organisation such as Microsoft? This video was shown at the TechEd Israel 2010 conference. It outlines how strongly Microsoft believes in diversity in the workplace.

California's Glass Ceiling May Take a Century to Crack The UC Davis Graduate School of Management in partnership with Watermark publishes the annual "UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders: A Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers. "Our seventh annual study details the presence of women at the very top of the 400 largest publicly held corporations headquartered in the state. Our findings paint a disappointing picture of female representation on the boards and in the executive suites of these high-profile companies, which together represent nearly $3 trillion in shareholder value.

Women entrepreneurs and technologists: a growing community more welcomed here than Bay Area, other tech hubs Link to the report report done in partnership with Temple University's Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple's Department of Journalism.

Where is the Female Mark Zuckerberg? The stereotypical founder of a silicon Valley giant is an insanely arrogant, pathologically driven, geekily brilliant 22-year-old guy. This boom looks different. For the first time in startup history, girl wonders actually have an edge over the boys. (not that anyone has noticed.) Can the new femme entrepreneurs seize their moment?

'Gender math gap' is cultural, not biological searchers find no innate differences between sexes that account for disparity. Many explanations for the gender gap in math skills don't hold up, suggests new on math skills and gender in 86 countries. Math has traditionally been seen as a man's game, and the statistics often indicate that there are differences between males and females in their math skills, participation in math activities and on tests - called the gender gap in math. Some researchers have proposed this gap is natural - that men are just better at math than women - while others say it's a cultural difference, whereby society somehow keeps girls from pursuing or excelling in math. The new research points to culture as the culprit, finding that certain countries showed less of a gap between males and females in math. Specifically, these female - math friendly countries have more gender equality, better teachers and fewer students living in poverty. In many countries, there isn't a gender gap in mathematics performance, the researchers said.

Applying a gender lens to Science, Technology and Innovation Governments should take concerted steps to include women and their concerns in their efforts to boost economic growth through science, technology and innovation, a new UNCTAD report urges. The report, Applying a Gender Lens to Science, Technology, and Innovation, was prepared as a contribution to the fifty-fifth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

ICT lessons 'not challenging enough' ICT lessons are 'inadequate' in almost one-fifth of secondary schools in the UK, according to Ofsted. The education watchdog has published a new report, which found that pupils' overall attainment was adversely affected from poor coverage of key aspects of the ICT curriculum. It revealed that lessons are not challenging enough for more able students and has called for teaching to be improved, most notably more demanding topics such as databases and programming.

Female IT professionals want gender equality to happen organically Female IT professionals have said that they would like the proportion of female executives being promoted to senior boardrooms grow organically. This is the finding of a recent survey by womenintechnology.co.uk, conducted at its latest event, hosted with ThoughtWorks in Manchester. Respondents were largely against introducing mandatory quotas, with just 13 per cent saying they would like to see this happen.

High-Performing Women in High Tech ''I'd never want a woman for a boss!'' ''Women are too competitive with each other!'' Unfortunately, these are old workplace stereotypes that hopefully had finally been laid to rest. Nevertheless, they were cited in a panel of female technology and internet entrepreneurs at Makovsky + Company on November 9 as among the images that today's women have grown up with that have held many back. Still, a glowing story was told in the outstanding track record that entrepreneurial women in technology and the internet have already achieved.

'Having 24.5% women workforce in HCL Tech is a tipping point' From a dedicated Web site to mentoring programmes aimed at engaging women employees, HCL Technologies has been rolling out initiatives to recruit and retain women. Earlier this year, it organised a 'women only' recruitment drive across Delhi NCR, Bangalore and Chennai and received an overwhelming response - over 2,500 walk-ins. Ms Robin Abrams, a board member at HCL Technologies and a champion of gender diversity, says the company has reached a tipping point. Almost a quarter of its workforce is now women - compared to 21 per cent two years ago.

Cisco Tech Chief Outlines Women's Advantages in Tech Cisco Systems' chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior is one of the most powerful women in Silicon Valley. She is responsible for around two-thirds of Cisco's revenues, which totaled $43 billion in the most recent fiscal year and, with her colleague Pankaj Patel, oversees more than 22,000 engineers. But Warrior nearly bypassed a career in business altogether - turned off from the tech industry by the dearth of women in the field, she instead aspired to be part of academia.

Is Technology the Best Sector For Female Advancement? The announcement that two of the largest technology companies are now headed by women gives us pause. Ginni Rometty's just-announced role as the next CEO of IBM, in addition to Meg Whitman, who became CEO of Hewlitt-Packard (HP) last month forever changes the landscape of America's high-tech world. Furthermore, these recent appointments redefine what has thus far been a largely male-dominated field, at least at the senior ranks.

Sen. Casey urges more computer courses At the Pittsburgh Public Schools' Science and Technology Academy the motto is ''Dream, Discover, Design. We need more schools like this in Pennsylvania and across the country,'' said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who found the Oakland school the perfect setting Tuesday to promote the Computer Science Education Act he introduced in the Senate two weeks ago. The bill, which Mr. Casey hopes will be folded into pending revisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, has as its goal strengthening K-12 computer science education to prepare students for high-paying computing jobs.

STEM: Science Technology Engineering Mathematics A new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that 65 percent of Bachelor's degrees in STEM (science, engineering, technology and mathematics) occupations earn more than Master9s degrees in non-STEM occupations. ...

Young Women Encouraged to Pursue STEM Education, Careers In 2004, Sandy Poinsett, a professor at the College of Southern Maryland, noticed there were only two or three girls among 20 boys in her calculus class -- not enough of an improvement over her own college calculus class, where two or three girls joined 200 boys. The thought that more girls should be represented in today's math courses led her to start an event to encourage young women to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Closing the Tech Startup Gender Gap Women 2.0, a company devoted to helping women entrepreneurs launch tech startups, says half of the women responding to an audience survey are actual company founders, compared to one quarter in its survey three years ago. There's a constant dialogue in the startup community about the reasons behind the gender gap among company founders and what should be done about it. Women 2.0 is one response. Co-founder Shaherose Charania started it 2006 to help connect women entrepreneurs and women who wanted to start companies with investors and other startup founders. ''We were going to networking events here in Silicon Valley and we were often one of the three women in the room,'' she told me earlier this year. The for-profit company, through its website, networking events, and a training program it calls a ''pre-incubator,'' appears to be making a difference at least within its own community.

Firms told to tap into female potential at training level for IT jobs Global technology businesses should tap into the large female talent pool by encouraging them at training level to enter IT jobs. This is the view of Kathy Hill, senior vice-president of development strategy and operations at Cisco Systems, who called for companies to overhaul their policies to start at this level in order to achieve a gender balance. Speaking at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, she called for the increase in numbers of women in technology roles as the industry expands.

Women: Technology Needs You! There just aren't enough women involved in the technology arena, speakers at the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation conference in San Francisco discussed. Kathy Hill, executive of the world's largest maker of networking equipment, Cisco, said that the lack of women in technology will hinder companies' global competitiveness, leaving a valuable source of female workers untapped. Hill went on to say that companies should overhaul policies starting at the training level to ensure a balance between the sexes. According to the US Department of Commerce, women hold about half the jobs in the general US economy but account for less than a quarter in the science, technology, engineering and math area.

Women IT leaders tackle labour shortage Linda Fitzgerald, who began working in the Information Technology field more than 25 years ago, recalls sitting at the back of the room at a company gathering of about 400 people, scanning the crowd and noticing there were hardly any women. ''There were about 10 of us and I remember thinking how weird that was. It really drove home how male dominated our field was then - and amazingly still is. I'm so glad it didn't scare me away. The tech sector is fascinating and during my time we've done things that have transformed our lives. There aren't many professions that can boast such amazing success,'' she says. Fitzgerald is concerned about how few women view IT as a top career choice. According to the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), women account for 24% of the Canadian IT workforce - a number that hasn't budged in the past 10 years. More than 100,000 jobs are expected to open up by 2016, a recent study by ICTC and the Information Technology Association of Canada found. If the Canadian IT sector is to continue to thrive and drive Canadian innovation, companies need to reach out to women to help address the talent gap.

The three biggest myths about women in tech Women in tech often have different experiences and encounter different challenges than do their male counterparts. The same goes for people in underrepresented ethnic groups. Last week, VentureBeat published Why more women aren't working in tech (hint: it's not just education), which discussed the Level Playing Field Institute's recently released report, The Tilted Playing Field, a study on how biases we may not even know exist, are present and affect workplace environments.

Why grown women, not just girls, need more tech role models Link to the video, where Meebo CTO and co-founder Sandy Jen come into the VentureBeat studio to talk about women and tech. We've featured a few strong and opinionated women CEOs and CTOs in our videos lately, because we think it's important to show the female faces and voices in the tech industry. And in this interview, Jen said that's one of the most important things for encouraging more female entrepreneurship.

New US Report: Women's entrepreneurship in high-tech holds promis to grow the US economy 'Overcoming the Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers' is a new study presented by the Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City exploring the reasons behind lower business startup rates among women and proposing actions that would help to realize the promise of female entrepreneurs in escalating the economy.

Swedish PM lifting gender equality as question of smart economics in the UN General Assembly debate 2011 On Wednesday the 21st of September Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil has become the first ever woman to open the General Assembly's annual general debate. The Brazilian President told world leaders that women are now occupying the place they deserve in the world. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt emphasized the importance of now giving priority to closing the gender gap in every field in society,specifically in supporting women's entrepreneurship and innovation.

W.I.N. Global Leadership Conference, 5th - 7th(8th) October 2011, Rome, Italy Every year the W.I.N. global leadership conference, a three-day global learning program, brings together over 1,000 people from more than 70 countries including: company executives, entrepreneurs, independent professionals, consultants, academics, artists, thought leaders, government and NGO representatives, international business school faculty and students. Their approach to the three-day learning event is based on ''world''- a global overview; ''work''- professional and career issues; and ''you'' - leadership and personal growth. They are distinctly feminine and focus on learning, creativity, exploring and applying feminine power, and accelerating innovation and change. The programme is carefully designed based on a systems approach and a vision for the future based on sensitivity and increased global and feminine consciousness.

ECWT's National Contact Points in place in the Netherlands and Hungary ECWT is delighted to announce that two oragnaizations with longstanding experiences and a considerable reference list of national and EU Project in women and technology have accepted to function as the National Point of Contact (N-PoC) of the ECWT in the Netherlands and Hungary.

Compete for the 'Active Ageing thr IT Learning' European Alliance Award For the second year in a row and for the first time in partnership with Adecco, the European Alliance on Skills for Employability (EASE) is organizing the Skills for Employability Awards, which will be awarded at the ''European Employment Forum'' in Brussels on 22 November. The Awards will provide the opportunity to celebrate outstanding and effective uses of ICT training and skills development adapted by NGOs to raise employment prospects and improve digital and social inclusion of the young, the disabled, older workers and other unemployed or under-employed people throughout the European Union. The deadline for proposals has been extended until Wednesday 28th of September!

Concerted actions supporting more girls in IT in the UK e-skills UK's industry-driven Girls in IT campaign aims to increase the number of female IT professionals from 17%, to reflect the percentage of women in the UK's working population: to 45%.

EWIL project meeting in Drammen Half way through in the Grundtvig LLL program project European Women Interactive Learning (EWIL) the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT) hosted the third project meeting in Drammen the 15-16 of September 2011. The basic aim of the EWIL learning partnership is to identify more effective forms of non - formal education directed to women, in order to obtain a double impact: to stimulate women's motivation to learn and to raise the quality of education opportunities directed to women in non-formal contexts, with a view to fight women marginalization in society and to open up opportunities in the job market in emerging sectors.

Henrike Paetz, SAP Research - Master's thesis on 'the Female Factor in Software Design' Henrike Paetz, Communication Director SAP Research and Member of the High-level Advisory of the ECWT has in June 2011 defended her Master's Thesis about the 'Femal Factor in Software Design' at Vienna University of Technology. The groundbreaking study presented by Henrike, focuses on a key issue in Gender and Technology of the 21st century: how to increase the female factor in technology design.

The Tech Gender Gap released a survey of college science, math and engineering majors this month that underscored differences between the motivations of male and female students. The top two reasons for choosing a science-tech major were ''good salary out of school'' and intellectual stimulation, but salary was the top choice for men, intellectual stimulation the top pick for women.

Klawe Says Technology Companies Seeking Women Engineers Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College, talks about the rise in women studying computer science at the school. On Klawe's watch, the percentage of female computer science majors at Mudd, one of California's prestigious Claremont colleges, has more than tripled, to 42 percent, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Sept. 26 issue. Klawe speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's ''Bloomberg West''.

Grant to aid in advancing female academics Recruiting, retaining and advancing female academics in science and technology fields is the objective of a new partnership between Shippensburg University and area colleges and organizations. The partnership was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation. PA STEM University Partnership for the Advancement of Academic Women program was awarded the $749,506 to support women academics in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.

Henrike Paetz, SAP Research on Gender and Technology Three questions to Henrike Paetz, Communication Director SAP Research about Gender and Technology on the occasion of her Master Thesis 'Femal Factor in Software Design'.

A genius idea: Robotics team gaining attention, winning awards A group of Girl Scouts from east Cobb County don't just like science, they also proudly proclaim themselves geeks. Members from the GENIUS (Girls Exploring New Ideas Using Science) robotics team won the ''Making a Difference'' Judges' Award at the FIRST LEGO League World Festival in St. Louis, where 80 teams competed. They're now gearing up for this season's competition.

Narrow Tech Pay Gap, Wide Gender Divide and Sexual Harassment Women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) make 86 cents on the male dollar. That's way better than the gap in the law which was 77 cents on the male dollar just one year ago. STEM needs far more women in it ranks. Only one out of every seven engineers is female and only 24 percent of those who work in all STEM fields are women.

The business case for women The platform for Enterprise Greater Moncton's second annual Women's Summit on September 14/15 rests on the theme 'Technology is borderless.' The declared goal of the Summit ''is to create a movement'' to build awareness of the opportunities for women in technology. That may be an oxymoron. Most ''movements'' are organized efforts to achieve a particular (usually social) objective. It could be the overthrow of a government, the pursuit of civil rights or Stephen Lewis' dream of a social-democracy movement. Women stand near the peak of opportunity and influence in business. They don't need a ''movement'' to capture the opportunities in technology; they need the rationale and enthusiasm to do so. Women influence 80 per cent of consumer spending decisions in Canada. They are a major force in the professions of law, medicine, media, politics and business. Women are team builders. Women are committed to the important values of our times, such as protecting the environment, product safety and education and they have the political skill to be effective in resolving these issues. They are and will continue to be a huge force in the solution of human problems.

Tech CEOs in 2011: Where Are the Women? Take a look at the senior management of Apple. Every senior executive is male. At IBM, it's 10 of 12. And at Texas Instruments, it's 3 of 12. Then consider how many technology companies have a female CEO. There's Yahoo, of course. Xerox. Hon Hai Precision Industries, Apple's biggest contract manufacturer. Then it gets more difficultIndeed, there are a number of top women executives slightly below the CEO level.But why so few at the top? Given that women are more than half the population and that young women now outnumber men in graduate schools, there ought to be more. Surely, as far as consumption of technology products goes, from iPhones to Kindles, women are a huge market.

Foreign-Born Women CEOs Find Common Ground in the Valley Five CEOs of Silicon Valley start-ups discussed how they overcame the challenges of starting and running their own businesses. Often a minority in the Silicon Valley start-up world, female CEOs have more obstacles to work through than their male counterparts.

Fostering More Female Tech Entrepreneurs When it comes to women working in Silicon Valley technology businesses -particularly women at the helm - the numbers remain painfully small.Less than 5 percent of tech startups are founded by female entrepreneurs, estimates Shaherose Charania, co-founder and CEO of Women 2.0, an organization that helps foster female tech entrepreneurs.

What Women Need to Advance: Sponsorship The business case for having more women in senior positions at corporations is clear. Quite simply, women bring a different perspective to the work world. Multiple studies have found a correlation between corporate performance and the percentage of women on boards, regardless of the industry.

Let's give women a technological edge Fifty-six percent of women working in technology vanish from their field in mid-career. That's 56 percent. Think about that number for a second. For every woman entering a tech field such as engineering or software development after college graduation, there is a higher chance she will leave the profession than she will finish her career. It's really no wonder, then, that men hold nearly four out of five technology jobs.

The future of IT will be reduced to three kinds of jobs The IT profession and the IT job market are in the midst of seismic changes that are going to shift the focus to three types of jobs. There's a general anxiety that has settled over much of the IT profession in recent years. It's a stark contrast to the situation just over a decade ago. At the end of the 1990s, IT pros were the belles of the ball. The IT labor shortage regularly made headlines and IT pros were able to command excellent salaries by getting training and certification, job hopping, and, in many cases, being the only qualified candidate for a key position n a thinly-stretched job market. At the time, IT was held up as one of the professions of the future, where more and more of the best jobs would be migrating as computer-automated processes replaced manual ones.

Did You Know? Did You Know? is a brief round-up of information and news that crossed NCWIT's radar and might be of interest to you.

How to Solve the 'Women in Science'Gap? Teach Girls to Love Science Women in sciences - or the lack thereof - is a topic that draws constant controversy. No matter what's causing such a low number of women to enter science-related fields, the numbers speak for themselves: women make up 46.5 percent of the U.S. workforce, but hold only 25 percent of math and computer science jobs, and 11 percent of engineering jobs.One solution for changing this ratio sounds simple, but is often overlooked: Make more of an effort to interest girls in hard sciences from an early age. Which was precisely the goal of the inaugural GE Girls at MIT Summer Education workshop, held this July.

Women in science: STEM taking root According to the National Science Foundation, the amount of women engaging in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, has grown significantly since the 1970s. Fewer than 78,000 women were enrolled as graduate students in science and engineering in 1977 � compared with nearly 232,000 in 2008.

Women Hitting a Wall in IT Women in information technology careers are still facing a glass ceiling, with most staying in junior or mid-level management positions, according to a new report. The report, by Women in Technology, found that many women in IT fields feel they are being passed over for promotion in favor of male colleagues. While 61 percent of respondents have more than 10 years of experience in the tech sector, for example, only 26 percent have reached senior management or board level, the study found.

Gender gap in science and technology jobs persists, report says The deficit of women in science and technology endures, even though they tend to earn far more than their counterparts in other fields, according to the Commerce Department. The fact that female scientists, engineers, mathematicians and technology honchos have been sorely lacking for the past decade is no surprise. Researchers from the Commerce Department's Economics and Statistics Administration point to pervasive gender stereotyping, the absence of role models and the rarity of positions with flexibility for families as potential causes.

The future of IT will be reduced to three kinds of jobs The IT profession and the IT job market are in the midst of seismic changes that are going to shift the focus to three types of jobs. There's a general anxiety that has settled over much of the IT profession in recent years. It's a stark contrast to the situation just over a decade ago. At the end of the 1990s, IT pros were the belles of the ball. The IT labor shortage regularly made headlines and IT pros were able to command excellent salaries by getting training and certification, job hopping, and, in many cases, being the only qualified candidate for a key position in a thinly-stretched job market. At the time, IT was held up as one of the professions of the future, where more and more of the best jobs would be migrating as computer-automated processes replaced manual ones.

The founding dreams of teens The VentureBeat post was about an entrepreneurial incubator put together by Teens in Tech, an 8-week summer program that helped six teams of young entrepreneurs launch six products over the course of a summer. Teams came with ideas, got paired up with mentors and resources, and were guided through the process of bringing their ideas to life. At the end of the 8 weeks, the teams presented their startups to a group of venture capitalists, tech influencers, media members and others. Instead of getting their driver's licenses and hooking up with their prom dates, these kids are getting a lesson in how to build a business. Come with your Clearasil, leave with a term sheet.

Link to the Jennifer Dennard's artcle about Woman's View of Healthcare IT.

Hagan touts tech jobs for women The jobs of the future are in STEM- science, technology, engineering and math, says Sen. Kay Hagan. Hagan delivered that message to a group of female high school students attending Microsoft's DigiGirlz Hitech Camp at the company's Charlotte campus. Microsoft sponsors 10 such three-day camps worldwide every summer. Students participate in technology tours, demonstrations and workshops and listen to speakers like Hagan.

When to Say ''No'' to Stretch Assignments Every month on Anita Borg Institute site, Jo Miller, CEO of Women's Leadership Coaching Inc., will answer your career and leadership questions.

President of the Parliament calls all the talents for Catalonia again be an economic engine at the conference 'Women and Technology' In her opening speech of the conference 'Women and Technology', organized on Thursday 13 July by the Barcalona Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the Parliament the President of the Catalan Parliament , Sra Nuria de Gispert, stressed that commitment to real equality between men and women and strengthening the representation of women in new technologies is needed to overcome the economic crisis. Madame de Gispert pointed out that Catalonia requires 'all the talents of men and women to return to being an economic engine - awareness and standards in all areas. Women should have the same equal footing as men, both from training and from the profession'.

Sorry, Guys: Girls Sweep Google's First Ever Science Fair ''What!? Girls aren't supposed to be good at science!'' is what someone old and dumb would likely say regarding the above headline. The top 15 finalists in Google's first ever Science Fair put their projects to the test in front of 1,000 attendees and a panel of judges. Taking first place across three age categories were three extremely bright young American women: Lauren Hodge, Naomi Shah and Shree Bose.

Beirut's girl geeks aim to close tech gender Cnn article about Girl Geek Camp that was held on July 8-14, 2011 in Lebanon helped teens prepare for high-tech careers Girls learn social networking, programming, photography and securit.y Organizers aim was to end ''myths'' and close gender gap in Lebanon.

STEMMING A site that connects women and girls interested in science, technology, engineering, and math - at any level.

A Woman's Place The article about Sheryl Sandberg and her life and work in the male dominated field of computingGoogle Exec Marissa Mayer Explains Why There Aren't More Girl Geeks,

Committed Commissioner Concerned about plugging the ICT skills gap Vice President Neelie Kroes, Commissioner of the Digital Agenda twittered on the 8th of March, centenary Internarnational Women's Day: Every Woman Digital; Neelie Kroes shows now her real concern for the issue and has on Tuesday this week the Commissioner invited some MEPs to an initial brainstorming around how to plug in the skills gap. Commissioner Neelie Kroes is also planning for a follow up meeting in October.

Women in Science The Women In Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ON THE AIR! website is an audio resource for anyone interested in the past, present and future role of women in science and technology education, fields and careers.

SXSWomen: Panels, participation at Interactive festival show women making inroads, but men still dominate tech industry (article by Esther Robards-Forbes).

Improving the Information Systems Workplace Can Women's Issues Become Men's Issues Too? When researchers asked managers in the information systems field about the challenges women in the profession face, they uncovered a serious gender gap: male and female managers think about the problem in very different ways. Understanding this gap could lead to more effective programs to address gender-based issues and to change the field's culture.

5 Women Leaders Who Are Shaping IT On the International Women's Day, people all over the world  are celebrating the achievements of women in virtually every aspect of life. More than 1700 events around the globe are planned to mark the event, in fact, including nearly 250 in the United States alone. Here in the high-tech world we clearly have our own female luminaries and key players, perhaps even more notable for their success in what's still largely a male-dominated field. What better time, then, to celebrate them and all they've brought to the industry? Here, then in no particular order are a few women most would surely agree are among the key influencers of the industry today.

Do Daughters Help Ease Gender Pay Gap? Researchers have found that wage differences within a company decrease when something seemingly unrelated to the workplace occurs: when male CEOs have daughters.

UWM study finds work climate the main reason women leave engineering Field now facing a problem of retaining women who are qualified MILWAUKEE - Women who leave engineering jobs after obtaining the necessary degree are significantly more likely to leave the field because of an uncomfortable work climate than because of family reasons, according to a study being undertaken at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).Nearly half of women in the survey who left an engineering career indicated they did so because of negative working conditions, too much travel, lack of advancement or low salary, the study shows.