A number of recent studies have drawn the same conclusion: There's still a stunning lack of women in corporate leadership and it will take decades for women to achieve parity with men in senior roles. But the situation is better for women at some companies than others. The National Association for Female Executives has identified the 60 U.S. corporations that do the best job of developing and nurturing women leaders. They all have executive coaching, affinity groups and programs that identify women with high potential for management. They also, on average, have more women in positions of leadership today than is the case at the average mega-corporation. The top 10 companies from NAFE's list, in alphabetical order below, represent a broad swath of industries.

Jan. 1, 2017, marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Grace Murray Hopper, computing sciences pioneer, academician and admiral in the United States Navy. Recently awarded a 2016 Presidential Medal of Honor for her work on the forefront of computers and programming development, Hopper was a thought leader in developing computer programs that translated high-level source code into English-like language. Feisty, imaginative and creative, Hopper serves as a role model for women in technology to this day.

''What are the implications of the computing world - as some people see it - having taken over the world?'' Dr. Bobby Schnabel asked a large group of students and professors at a computer science colloquium last Tuesday. Currently the CEO of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Schnabel described the evolution of computer science in relation to society and then challenged the audience to consider the many ethical implications of this development.

New evidence suggests that diversity programs aren't quite doing as well as they could. Tessa Dover and Brenda Major of the University of California, Santa Barbara along with Cheryl Kaiser of the University of Washington conducted a series of experiments that revealed how some diversity efforts cause a backlash. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, showed that (perhaps not surprisingly) pro-diversity messages make members of high-status groups (i.e.: white men) feel threatened.

Every year, major tech companies like Pinterest, Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter release diversity reports. They tend to show minimal, if any, progress toward hiring more employees and leaders who aren't white men. The press is critical; the tech community begs for improvement. A year later, the cycle repeats. These reports (and their timely release) are important: They build transparency and trust in the company, and allow the public to hold it accountable to its pledged commitments. This year, however, some companies missed their 12-month mark. They're waiting until the end of the calendar year to release their reports.

There are half a million open technology jobs in the United States today, and that number is projected to more than double within the next 4 years. These jobs pay 50 percent more than the average private-sector job. One recent analysis of 26 million job postings found that nearly half of all the jobs in the top quartile in pay require some computer-science (CS) knowledge or coding skills. And yet, CS remains largely missing from American K-12 education. By the most recent estimates, just 40 percent of K-12 schools report offering even a single computer-science course, and only 32 states currently allow students to count computer science towards core high school graduation requirements. These challenges, and the growing relevance of computing to America's economy, cybersecurity, and national security, are why President Obama issued a bold call to action at the beginning of this year - in his final State of the Union address - to give every child the opportunity to learn computer science.

Several Silicon Valley technology companies have delayed releasing their annual diversity reports as the industry struggles to show progress in adding more women and minorities to their ranks.

The L'Oreal USA For Women in Science fellowship program awards five women postdoctoral scientists annually with grants of $60,000 each for their contributions in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields and commitment to serving as role models for younger generations. The program is the U.S. component of the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Fellowships. Celebrating its thirteenth year in the U.S., the For Women in Science program has awarded 65 postdoctoral women scientists over $3 million in grants. L'Oreal USA partners with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to manage the program's application and peer-review process. Each year, the program attracts talented applicants from diverse STEM fields, representing some of the nation's leading academic institutions and laboratories. The 2017 L'Oreal USA for Women in Science application period opened on November 28, 2016 and will close on February 3, 2017.

President Obama awarded his last Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest US honor given to a civilian - in a packed ceremony on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. Margaret Hamilton, the woman behind the onboard flight software for NASA Apollo lunar modules and command modules, was among the 21 recipients.

Around 20% of engineering graduates are women, but only 13% of the engineering workforce is female. So why do so many women who study engineering leave the profession? While plenty of possible reasons have been mooted, from a lack of mentors for women in the field to the demands of maintaining a work-life balance, a recent study has come up with a new explanation for the discrepancy. Teamwork is a key requirement in many engineering roles. Yet female engineering students told the researchers they were treated differently by male classmates when working in groups. The study found that in group situations, especially during internships and summer jobs, women were often given less challenging problems and were relegated to doing routine ''managerial and secretarial'' tasks instead of the ''real'' engineering work.