If more women want to be in IT, then they need to put forth the effort to do so. It is not incumbent upon anyone else to 'encourage' women to do anything. There is no 'encouragement' for men to be in IT, but yet we are involved. Why do people feel that women need special assistance? As Nate said above, correlation does not imply causation. A simple lesson that needs to be learned by both the HR industry a special interest groups of all stripes.

How about we let the people who want to be in IT, be in IT and be done with it?