If girls have slightly higher IQs and get better grades, why are their numbers disproportionately low in math and science careers? Read More

The number of American women receiving patents has soared in recent years. A study released by the National Women’s Business Council last week found that the number of patents granted to women increased by 35 percent in 2010. Nearly 23,000 of the patents granted that year named a female inventor, an all-time high.

“The total number of patents obtained by women shows an accelerating rate of increase with time,” the report said. “Similarly, there is an accelerating rate at which women become primary inventors as judged by the first name on a patent disclosure. This suggests an increasing leadership by women entrepreneurs in R&D activities.” read more

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), a coalition of universities, corporations, and non-profits working to increase women’s participation in technology and computing, has launched an Affinity Group Alliance to unite and support groups that serve technical women. Read More

Tebello Nyokong was born in Lesotho on 20 October 1951, but spent most of her first eight years outside her country of birth. In primary school she spent alternate days tending sheep. Far from discouraging her, this increased her self-confidence because she concluded that she could do anything a boy could do.

In 1977 she graduated from the National University of Lesotho, having spent her spare time doing research on the role of chemistry in everyday African life, and obtained a Canadian International Development Agency Scholarship to undertake post-graduate studies. Four years later she graduated with an MSc in chemistry, and after further study received a PhD from the University of Western Ontario in 1987. She then applied for and was given a Fulbright fellowship for post-doctoral study at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. At Rhodes, Nyokong trains PhD Chemistry students. In 2010, Prof Nyokong was awarded honorary doctorates from the Walter Sisulu University and the University of South Africa. Prof Nyokong has been inducted into the Lesotho Hall of Fame.

While HTC was founded as High Tech Computers and began in the late 1980s as a portable computer manufacturing firm, the company’s bread and butter these days is smartphone devices. The company’s latest projects include a series of low-cost 4G smartphones for Verizon and T-Mobile, along with a variety of Windows Phone 7 devices. And, they were the first to offer an Android phone.

Carolyn Leighton founded WITI in 1989 as a worldwide e-mail network for women in all technology sectors. At the time WITI was established, Ms. Leighton was President of Criterion Research, a research consulting firm for the high tech industry which she founded in 1984, as well as chair of the Core Competency Database Project at Stanford University.

Due to Ms. Leighton’s leadership and vision, WITI has grown to be the premiere brand and worldwide organization dedicated to empowering women worldwide to achieve unimagined possibilities and transformations through technology, leadership and economic prosperity.

Ms. Leighton has 35 years of experience as an educator and entrepreneur. In addition to WITI, she founded four start-ups in the high-tech, legal sectors and, most recently, the pet industry. She attended the University of Michigan and has a bachelor’s degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College. Ms. Leighton was named one of the “Top 100 Women in Computing” in 1997 and 2000.

“Well,” Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann told the caller, “I’m actually the chancellor at U.C.S.F.” Read More