An IT services and support company says big corporations need to do more to attract greater numbers of women into IT. Mark MacGregor, CEO at Connect, which provides technology support for businesses, said there is no reason for women not to decide on an IT career, and also said corporations need to do more to change IT culture. Connect has just started a scheme - "Googlegirls" - aimed at driving cultural change and attracting more women into the IT profession. The company holds special events for women, and has introduced a raft of measures to make returning to work after having children easier.

IBM establishes fellowship program to honor the first female winner of the Turing Award.

Women in Australia's IT industry are getting the word out to raise awareness of the problems they still face in the workplace. In the sea of blokey middle-aged males who typically dominate the ranks of Australian technology companies, a small group of enterprising women have built multi-million dollar IT businesses - and they're hell bent on turning the gender tides.

IT FOR CHANGE is undertaking a collaborative research study with support from UNDP on 'ICTs for Participatory Local Development', the outcomes of which will be published as a toolkit to develop a more systemic application of ICTs in future initiatives. They are seeking researchers or organisations from the global South to collaborate on this project. Four partners will be selected to work alongside IT for Change for the duration of the project, each of whom will undertake two to three in-depth case studies on ICT systems in their local regions.

BRUSSELS, Belgium; The information technology industry needs to show that it isn't just for geeky, unsociable people if it is to attract more women to fill a skills shortage, according to the EU's top technology official.

A new collection of essays, Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering (Stanford University Press), takes the broader perspective. The collection was edited by Londa Schiebinger, a professor of the history of science at Stanford. She recently answered e-mail questions about the themes of the book.

The WGBH Educational Foundation and the Association for Computing Machinery are launching a marketing campaign aimed at encouraging college-bound high-school students to pursue careers in computer science. The two-year project, called New Image for Computing, is particularly focused on encouraging Latina girls and African-American boys to get into the field.

The number of young boys who've considered pursuing a career in IT is double that of young girls, who don't perceive enough strong female role models in the space, according to a study from BlackBerry-maker RIM.

The most happening career is now gaining ground in rural areas of the district. And guess who? Women are taking the lead, for a change.

Why aren't there more women in science and engineering? Controversial new research suggests: They just aren't interested.