The 39-year-old self-taught "techie" says she never imagined she would be working with computers and networks. But, she says, "I'm having fun. I'm learning tons."

She doesn't wear a beeper, doesn't work weekends and gets four weeks' paid vacation.

Information technology, or IT, jobs typically offer hefty salary and benefit packages and significant job mobility. These days, some new hires are raking in signing bonuses of $2,000 to $4,000 when they commit to stay at least a year.

DeVore entered the IT field as did a few other veteran workers--without computer experience. Thirteen years ago, as a newly hired secretary with a not-so-lucrative, not-so-relevant degree in theater, she had to teach herself how to use software, add computer memory, load programs and fix problems on her computer, which was one of only two then in use in her office at Chicago's Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine.

As more computers were purchased at the college, DeVore quickly became the resident expert. She took her first formal computer course two years ago, and is now a certified Microsoft engineer A+, which means she is qualified to set up and trouble-shoot computer network systems. She is also director of information systems at the college.

Being self-taught makes DeVore unusual in the core IT world of computer analysts, programmers, scientists and engineers. Being a woman in that sphere makes her a rarity.

Of the estimated 250,000 Microsoft-certified professionals in the U.S., only 10 percent are women, and in IT overall, women make up only 20 percent of the work force, according to a recent survey by the American Association of University Women.

Of the four-year computer science degrees awarded each year, about 15 percent go to women, which is less than in 1984, when women took about 33 percent of those degrees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Computing Research Association.

Women who work in IT often feel alone and isolated, many say.

Katie Mann, a network administrator and president of the National Capitol (Washington, D.C.) Chapter of the Association for Women in Computing, says she was the only woman out of about 15 participants at two training sessions she attended in the last six months. There are seven men in her eight-person office at Xpedior, an e-business firm in Washington.

Nationwide, there is a growing and perhaps dangerous dearth of IT workers as rapid technology growth outstrips the supply of trained employees.

During 1999, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 400,000 IT jobs went unfilled.

The lack of workers, and of women in particular, has stirred a deluge of academic, private and government efforts to attract, train and retain women in IT. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has made a formal commitment to pull more women into the field.

In April, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) introduced the Information Technology Act of 2000, which would provide grants to pay up to $5,000 in education costs for women, minorities and others under-represented in IT who commit to teaching IT skills for at least three years at the college level or other adult training programs. The Girl Scouts of America recently added an entire technology achievement section aimed at exposing girls to the field and encouraging interest.

And the American Association of University Women recently published a lengthy report, "Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age," that called for sweeping changes. The report concludes with a number of recommendations: To appeal to girls, computer games and programs must be more interactive and less violent; computing lessons in schools will better serve all students and girls in particular when computing is incorporated into all curriculum areas; professional development of teachers must shift from mastery of the hardware to the design of classroom materials, curricula and teaching styles that complement computer technology.

Collectively, these and other efforts should help. But, says Anita Borg, president of the Institute for Women and Technology and founder of Systers, an electronic community of women in computing, "If we had been attracting women (to IT) at the same rate as men, there wouldn't be a shortage."

Borg has spearheaded a consortium of government, private and academic institutions aimed at realizing women's potential in the IT work force. The group, known as 50/50 by 2010, includes the National Science Foundation, Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network, the Society of Women Engineers and Girl Scouts of America.

Part of the task lies in identifying what impedes women's entry into IT.

Borg and other advocates say subtle sociocultural messages can become invisible straitjackets. When a schoolgirl gifted in math is gently steered toward language or art, she likely will head that way before realizing too late that science or engineering would have been a better fit for her.

When bigger raises and salaries and better IT jobs and promotions go to males, females in the running take note. Some get angry and try harder.

Many leave.

For example, one female systems analyst in Chicago who has worked for the same company for more than a decade and handles payroll knows she's earning $2,000 less than a male with the same responsibilities and credentials, and only two years on staff. She is quietly looking for a new job.

On the other hand, some perceived deterrents don't really exist, some note. Alicia Schrader, a recruiter in the Oakbrook Terrace office of the Chicago staffing firm Digital People, says many women mistakenly believe all IT jobs require years of advanced training and demand 60-hour work weeks that will compete with personal and family life. They also think employers are predisposed to hire males. Not so, she says.

Although taking a few courses can significantly strengthen one's chances, "a lot of employers are more interested in relevant experience than they are in degrees," Schrader says. Employers are so hungry for workers, most try hard to accommodate the needs of qualified applicants, she adds.

Women tend to view IT jobs in far too narrow terms, Schrader says.

"Internet programming is all they hear about and all they seem to see in the media. There are tons of other opportunities that women are well-qualified for," she says.

Leveraging experience into technical jobs, especially jobs associated with the Internet, is a good tactic for women, says Schrader, 34. For example, she took her degree in graphic arts along with two years of print journalism experience and landed a job designing Web sites. Two years ago, she parlayed that experience into a job recruiting IT workers.

Some obstacles for women in IT affect men too. One such obstacle is the number of H-1B visas, which allow foreigners to fill technical jobs for limited terms.

Last year, Congress raised the H-1B visa limit from 65,000 to 115,000 for 1999 and 2000. The 1999 cap was reached by June of that year. Opponents of these visas say that they are worse than a Band-Aid solution. They mask the worker shortage and impede the natural market response to that shortage.

But even though many U.S. companies have made decisions to cut costs by importing trained workers rather than investing in American education or on-the-job training, the IT worker shortage is a wide-open doorway that beckons women willing to obtain training and enter the field, says Kelly Carnes, assistant secretary for technology policy with the Commerce Department.

"The nation cannot afford to be wasting the talent from half our population," she says.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2006, IT-producing industries--hardware, software and service suppliers--will provide 6 million jobs. Add in IT-using industries, which include all commercial and industrial computer users from hospitals and schools to marketing firms and car manufacturers, and the projection rockets to more than 55 million jobs.

To some extent, women's scarcity in the industry may itself perpetuate the imbalance.

"A personal fear I have is that the attention to how few women there are in IT, with horror stories, will drive other women away. Probably every woman has a horror story, and this isn't unique to IT," says Mann, the Washington network administrator.

Some, like Schrader, the recruiter, say gender discrimination is probably less common in IT jobs than in other professions.

"You're not going to see that in this industry because the people who are starting up these tech companies are too young," she says. "I grew up expecting equality; so did other people my age."

Schrader suspects that when women in IT jobs run into discrimination and harassment, it's because of a cultural clash.

"The old boys' school is coming up against this new industry," she says. "A lot of men in these larger corporations are intimidated by the technology, and the women who come in are knowledgeable about that technology. I think we pose a threat to them.