Women and technology

Este articulo proviene de la BBC news

Women and technology

• Darren Waters
• 6 May 08, 11:22 GMT

Are there enough women working in technology?

I don't have any figures to hand, but I think it's safe to say that women are woefully under-represented in the technology industries.

A survey landed on my desk this morning, commissioned from Research in Motion, which said 73% of girls aged 11 to 16 believe there is a gap between school interest in technology and a career in the industry because of a lack of UK female role models.

I've been struggling to think of some UK specific examples. So if you've any suggestions, send them on.

But here are a few high-flying women from outside the UK who have succeeded in the tech world and who should act as excellent role models:

Marissa Mayer - the first female engineer to be hired at Google. She (pictured) is now in charge of search and user experiences at the web giant.

Meg Whitman - until very recently, chief executive of auction giant Ebay.

Mary Lou Jepsen - architect of the design of the $100 laptop for the One Laptop Per Child program, and is currently looking at commercial spin offs of the technology.

Anne Mulcahy - chairman and chief executive of Xerox, one of the world's leading tech innovators.

Patricia Russo - head of Alcatel-Lucent, one of the world's biggest network firms.

Susan Desmond-Hellman - head of product development for Genentech, one of the founders of the biotech industries.

And it's not as if successful women in technology are a new thing. Consider Ada Lovelace, viewed by many as the world's first computer programmer. And she was doing her thing back in the 19th Century.