Postmedia - Where the girls are not: Numbers of women in tech fields declining

…Figures from the Information and Communications Technology Council show that last year, only about 25 per cent of people working in the field of information technology were women. And women are even more rare in the most technical fields, making up just 12 per cent of electrical, computer and software engineers, and 19 per cent of programmers.

Darlene Hnatchuk, who works at the McGill University Engineering Student Centre as industry liaison manager for internships, said engineering faculties in each of the country's universities have had programs in place for more than a decade to try to boost female enrolment, yet 2009 was just the first year in eight that the proportion of females in Bachelor of Engineering programs increased.

"Part of the problem is that there aren't a lot of female engineering role models," said Hnatchuk, who says the McGill school has programs to attract school-age girls, and also to help current female students by holding networking events geared toward women. Though the figures are not on her side, Hnatchuk says she believes the tide will be shifting soon...