Progressive and unbiased -- not everyone would use such terms to describe work force management in the IT industry. Despite the visibility of high-profile female tech execs such as Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina, women are underrepresented in the IT field in general and in the executive ranks in particular. Historically IT worker pipelines have not been filled with women. According to a study conducted by Arthur Andersen, young men are five times more likely than young women to choose computer science or computer engineering majors in school.

Still some women are moving up in the IT ranks and reaching out to help others do the same. They're taking on the old boy network.

Someone to look up to

"Photo Chipp Jamison"Monique Boea struggled against both financial and educational odds to launch her IT career. When she made it, Boea, a Web developer at Atlanta-based Interland, founded African-American Women in Technology (AAWIT), an organization dedicated to the education, support, and advancement of black women in IT.

Boea's role as mentor to other women in information technology did not come to her easily. In 1997, while working as an administrative assistant at a software company, Boea didn't know HTML from XFL. That changed quickly when she discovered that some IT staffers were making as much as $80,000 per year. Boea figured if they could do it, so could she. Right then and there, she set out to pursue a technology career. At first, she asked her male colleagues how they had gotten into IT. Most of the men told her the field was "very difficult to break into," and they said, "Just stick with what you are doing."

Despite their cynicism, Boea began teaching herself HTML and Photoshop, pulling all-nighters and dragging herself to work the next day. "I knew that as a woman -- and especially as a black woman -- I would need to master [Photoshop]," Boea says. "I knew that the design aspect wasn't going to get me 70K to 80K, so I took it a step further and learned Cold Fusion and mastered that."