A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across some comments about the perceived benefits women bring to the workplace.

Intrigued, I read on to discover that women can bring 'special strengths' to the office, such as sensitivity and creative thinking.

Many women also apparently don't believe they are doing a good job unless someone else tells them.

And ideas presented by women in meetings will be greeted with indifference; until they are proposed by a man, that is, when they will receive a positive response.

The list continues, and reads like something that would be very much at home in 1950s middle England.

Yet these comments are bang up to date, and were made by delegates at a meeting hosted by the BCS at the end of last year, discussing the issue of women in IT.

It is hardly surprising that while attitudes such as these persist we continue to have a problem attracting women into the industry. Such opinions are outdated and nothing more than thinly veiled forms of sexism.

Sweeping generalisations concerning any ?minority? group are dangerous and unhelpful, and can only serve to harm any attempt to redress balances.

IT is one of the few sectors where men still significantly dominate the workforce, and figures published by the University of Cambridge last year (Computing, 23 September) show that the number of women in the industry is in decline.

In 1999 there were 109,900 females working in IT, but by 2003 that figure had plummeted to just 53,700.

Generalisations and misconceptions about IT?s geek culture are further damaging IT's appeal to women. The industry still has something of a stigma attached to it.

Being an IT manager is not considered a hip occupation, let alone being an expert in an area such as storage arrays, for example.

The internet and the advent of phenomena such as email, digital photography and online shopping have gone some way in helping make technology cool. But businesses and education leaders must do more to attract and retain a female workforce.

The government has made some progress in addressing these misconceptions: Education Secretary Ruth Kelly recently announced proposals to introduce diplomas in IT for secondary-school pupils.

Ensuring that children leave school IT-literate and with some technical knowledge is essential if we are to attract the iPod generation to careers in IT.

Providing such opportunities to all schoolchildren will break down the barriers of IT being presented as a male-focused career choice.

But until we start reaping the benefits of these changes, it is the responsibility of businesses and employers to prove that women are both needed and welcome in the IT sector.

And that is where flexible working will play a key role.

Unless some wacky scientist with too much time on their hands works out a way for men to give birth, employers must allow for the fact that some women will inevitably take time out of their careers to have children.

But more flexible policies could allow key female workers to return to the workforce much quicker than is currently possible.

Being allowed to work adaptable hours, or even fewer hours, enabling them to maintain close contact with their children, would help entice women back to their careers.

So would the opportunity to work from home, or to share job roles with colleagues, or being able to take advantage of creches provided by employers.

Giving male workers time off to look after young children, enabling their female partners to go back to work and get on with their careers, could also help to address the male/female worker ratio in the industry.

These changes are not going to happen overnight, and evolution will have to play at least some sort of role.

But children - whatever their gender - must be given the opportunity to make a serious go of technology-based careers.

Businesses must do all they can to make a career in IT for women as viable and fulfilling as it is for men.

And the industry must address its antiquated views and wake up to the fact that women are just as suited as men to working in IT.