The overall percentage of women in the IT workforce is on the decline, from 41 percent in 1996 to 32 percent in 2004. In addition, a recent study shows that women fill only 9 percent of Boards of Director positions at high-tech Fortune 500 companies. Why are women leaving IT in such high percentages, especially mid-career?

TriCalyx, a Colorado-based web site development and optimization firm, is doing their part to stem this tide. The company, founded by three successful women technologists, has joined the National Center for Women & Information Technology’s (NCWIT) Entrepreneurial Alliance to assist in addressing this concern. NCWIT formed its Entrepreneurial Alliance to address the causes for the small number of women involved in starting businesses, filing patents, and transferring technology in the IT field.

Lee Kennedy, a TriCalyx co-founder, serves as an active member of the Board of Directors for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). In this role she helps manage the Entrepreneurial Alliance through outreach in its IT Heroes Campaign. This campaign will use the expansive network of NCWIT members to identify and tell the stories of 15-20 successful women IT entrepreneurs. This project seeks to attract young women to IT entrepreneurship by highlighting the appealing opportunities for an exciting, lucrative, and self-directed career.

Learn more about how you can be a part of NCWIT by going to their web site at www.ncwit.org.