50th Session will take place from 27th February - 10th March 2006, in the United Nations, New York. The two-day ICT Component, from 8 - 9 March, is titled: "Enhancing Women's Global Leadership Through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): Strengthening the Business Environment for Women; and, Increasing the Participation of Women in Political Decision Making." The 50th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will consider the following two themes: enhanced participation of women in development: an enabling environment for achieving gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of education, health and work and equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels.

Fostering the Computing Culture. A talk by computer science professor Danielle Bernstein about how how to attract and retain women in math, science, and, especially, computing.

$1.2 million to public administration scholars at the University of Illinois at Chicago to find out how professional and social networking advances the careers of women in science and engineering. Julia Melkers and Eric Welch, UIC associate professors of public administration, and assistant professor Sharon Mastracci will use the three-year grant to focus on such networks in academia and government. Although women account for more than half of the professionals in biological and social sciences, their numbers are disproportionately low in other scientific fields, the researchers said.

NEW YORK (AP) - Women are now as likely to use the Internet as men - about two-thirds of both genders - yet a new study shows that gaps remain in what each sex does online. Men who go online are more likely than women to check the weather, the news, sports, political and financial information, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported Wednesday. They are also more likely to use the Internet to download music and software and to take a class. Online women, meanwhile, are bigger users of e-mail, and they are also more likely to go online for religious information and support for health or personal problems.

Washington, D.C. (May 22, 2006) DIVERSITY DEFICIT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IDENTIFIED AS "GROWING GAP"AT TOWN HALL U.S. Sen. Barack Obama cites need to reverse "long historic discrimination in the area of gender" saying that locking women out of information technology (IT) is "like having one hand tied behind our competitive backs." At the 350-person, first-ever Innovation Town Hall sponsored by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the National Academy of Sciences, every speaker from the federal government, industry, think thanks, non-profits and academia cited the lack of diversity in IT as a major competitive and innovative problem for the U.S. With 50 percent of the professional workforce identified as female in 2004, only 29 percent of the professional IT workforce was female and the numbers are declining.

Washington, D.C. (May 22, 2006) - DIVERSITY DEFICIT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IDENTIFIED AS "GROWING GAP"AT TOWN HALL U.S. Sen. Barack Obama cites need to reverse "long historic discrimination in the area of gender" saying that locking women out of information technology (IT) is "like having one hand tied behind our competitive backs." At the 350-person, first-ever Innovation Town Hall sponsored by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the National Academy of Sciences, every speaker - from the federal government, industry, think thanks, non-profits and academia - cited the lack of diversity in IT as a major competitive and innovative problem for the U.S. With 50 percent of the professional workforce identified as female in 2004, only 29 percent of the professional IT workforce was female and the numbers are declining.