Microsoft is looking for a strategy designed to dramatically enhance the number of women involved in high technology fields. In this context, the Redmond company has allied with the National Center for Women and Information Technology, in an effort to break down the stereotypes associated with IT. The move is stringent from Microsoft's perspective as the general industry trend points to the fact that women are actually turning away from computing. This is one of the reasons why Microsoft has partnered with the National Center for Women and Information Technology, co-hosting bi-annual conferences focused on the integration of women in technology fields.

"There's never been an organization that's tried to bring together all minds and create collaboration," stated Sean Kelley, diversity director for Microsoft's global sales and marketing group. "We're all working towards common goals; we're just not very coordinated. NCWIT will standardize how we solve problems. For us, it's about partnership. We have issues that other companies share. It's not about Microsoft, it's about the vitality of the industry."

"Microsoft realizes they have to move the needle nationally," explained NCWIT co-founder and CEO Lucy Sanders, a former vice-president at Bell Labs, where she was a Bell Labs Fellow, and a self-confessed technology maven with six patents to her name. "The reason why this matters is because of the point of view women bring to innovation. Think about how pervasive computing is in our lives. If women are not helping to invent it, we're not going to get technology that's as well-rounded as it could be."

According to figures made available by Microsoft, only 27% of computing positions are occupied by women. The rest of the IT workforce is largely gendered male. And women are even less present at senior levels, at least judging by the leading 100 Fortune 500 firms. An on top of it all, the share of women involved in computer and information science studies is on the decrease having already dropped to 21% this year from 36% in 1983.