For tech jobs, women can get with the program

"One of the biggest criticisms of technology today is that user interfaces are poor," explains Hardgrave, a professor of information systems at the University of Arkansas. Men, he says, largely don’t do a great job making the products easier to use because they concentrate more on the "geek" factor of technology. "I think women have more of an intuitive sense of designing interfaces."

Rebecca Berger, a senior programmer for Coastal Contacts, which sells vision-care products online, says she loves being one of the only women in her IT group.

"I don’t have to deal with the dynamics of working with women, dealing with cattiness and hormones," she says. But, she admits, "It would be nice to have someone to turn to sometimes who thinks like me."

Sanders, of the Center for Women and Information Technology, believes it’s all about diversity of thought and how diversity leads to a better product. "Anything created by a homogenous group isn’t as robust," she explains.

Suzanne Gordon, chief information officer of database software company SAS, is disheartened by the growing lack of women in IT.

She graduated from college in the 1970s, and she says there seemed to be more women going into the field back then. “There were no preconceived notions of who went into it,” she says.

But now, she adds, IT has come to be thought of as a field for men, especially when it comes to the more technical jobs, where women make up only 10 percent at SAS. On the business side, for things like payroll and accounts receivable, and on the help desk, there are plenty of women at the company, about 50 percent of the total.

“Where we have difficulty finding women is more on the hardware side, working more directly with machinery like UNIX and PC boxes and networks,” she says. And that’s a problem, she continues, because “the groups work much better when at least one woman is in the group. They bring a different perspective and viewpoint.”

In one particular team at SAS that has one woman, she explains, "The whole group is different when she’s not there. She has the personality. The guys in that group are more quiet nerds."

While companies cannot legally base their hiring decisions on gender, many IT hiring managers say they would be very open to considering qualified women, if only there were more of them.

"Really my goal is to hire enthusiastic, bright people, regardless of gender," says Heather Tipple, director of information systems at car-buying Web site Edmunds.com. "Unfortunately, I rarely see resumes from qualified female candidates. I probably see one resume from a female per every 10 I see from a man."

If you’re thinking about giving the IT field a try, the first thing to do is brush aside any preconceived notions you have about the profession. With computer and mathematical sciences jobs expected to grow faster than any other professional occupations through 2016, at nearly 25 percent, according to the Department of Labor, it may be dumb to rule the field  out.

Barbara Viola, president of the Long Island Chapter of the Association of IT Professionals, offers some advice:

• Get an internship while in high school or college to figure out if it’s something you’d be interested in as a long-term career, and gain some experience.
• Many people start out in IT careers paying their dues in technical support, helping customers and employees with technical issues, and learning a lot in the process.
• There are lots of opportunities to work in IT at companies and organizations that are not computer companies. Civil service and government jobs can be a great place to be involved in cutting-edge technology.
• The one constant in IT is that employees need to constantly udatie their skills, so choose a path and find out what kind of certification you’ll need.

For career changers, Judy Murrah, senior director of Motorola IT, suggests playing up your expertise. If you have been in nursing, a company with a health care focus might love to benefit from your real medical world knowledge, she says.

Murrah sings the praises of a computer career for women because of the prevalence of family-friendly policies, opportunities to work from home, and even onsite day care at some larger firms like Motorola.

"And another thing I like about IT is it’s a very measurable job," she adds. "All that men and women stuff can be neutralized by that fact. Are you doing the job or not? Are the systems going in with quality or not?"

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