Almost all IT professionals know who Bill Gates is.
Yet only a fraction recognize Carly Fiorina, who is one of the most visible women in technology.
Despite being named the Most Powerful Woman in Business by Fortune, only 12 percent of IT professionals recognize Hewlett-Packard's female CEO, compared with 98 percent who recognize Gates and 59 percent who recognize Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
That gap exists partly because the male stars of the industry are so high-profile, said Diana Pollich, research director at Roper Starch who conducted the recent Women in Technology Leadership survey released by Deloitte & Touche.
While the glass ceiling is usually associated with stodgy, old-economy firms, women in the new economy say they also face barriers that prevent them from rising through the ranks.
"The word from the front lines is that these are problems," Pollich said. "It's not just a perception."
This year's Women in Technology International (WITI) annual 2001 Professional Women's Summit in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday and Thursday, will launch a new program designed to guide women to the forefront.
Select female execs will network with a roundtable of CEOs and business leaders at an Executive Women's Forum, where they can discuss challenges and get advice from fellow mentors.
But do women in technology really need their own events, when they are increasingly joining the ranks of managers and professionals?
While nearly two-thirds of women in IT surveyed said that a glass ceiling exists, nearly two-thirds of men said that this barrier is a non-issue.
But many insist that the technology industry is still not a level playing field.
"There's a different set of issues that women at the top of management have to face," said Abbie Lundberg, editor in chief of CIO magazine, who is one of the executives leading the event. "There aren't a lot of forums for that."
Although women are fielding management positions, few are leading technology companies. Only one out of 10 surveyed said the owner or CEO of their company was a woman. That's only 10 percent, compared to 17 percent in other industries.
"There are a lot of the same obstacles and challenges in existence in the technology industry (as in the old economy)," said Sue Molina, director of Deloitte & Touche's Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women.
"It's a lot more subtle today, but there is still gender bias in the workplace," Lundberg agreed. "Most women don't let it slow them down, but it does exist."
Women in IT feel that they are perceived to have less knowledge and qualifications than their male counterparts, that they are paid less for the same type of work, and that they have few female role models in senior leadership positions, Molina said.
In another recent study, just 41 of 300 companies surveyed had female CEOs. That's partly because being a CEO is a demanding position that's not attractive "for people who want more work-life balance," Lundberg said.
"It's still a challenge (for women in the technology industry)," Lundberg said. "There's not a big history of success, especially at the senior level."
That's why events such as the Executive Women's Forum are important, she said.
"A lot of women feel that they have an obligation to help each other out.... The women who are among the top successful women in technology right now -- the first wave of women who've made it -- are very generous in sharing their experience and how they've got there."
"There are no real closed doors," Lundberg said. "It's just that sometimes women have to try harder."
The two-day event features other networking sessions where attendees can connect with successful women execs on topics such as "So You Want to be a CIP/CTO?" and "Management 101 for Techies."
This year's event will feature keynotes by prominent speakers including Radha Basu, CEO of Support.com; Cynthia Martin, former vice president of Eastman Kodak (EK); Janet Perna, general manager of data management solutions for IBM (IBM); and Wall Street Journal columnist Kara Swisher.
An awards ceremony Thursday night will recognize top executives who contribute to society through technology.
Several prominent researchers and scientists -- including Janet Perna, IBM's highest-ranking female software executive; Duy-Loan Le of Texas Instruments; and Darlene Solomon, director of Life Science Tech Labs for Agilent Technologies -- will be inducted into the WITI Hall of Fame during the conference.
