Tech's leading women get props

Women bosses in technology get plenty of bragging rights in a new Wall Street Journal ranking of the "Top 50 Women to Watch."

Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina ranked first in the category of those "running the show"--women chairs or chief executives. eBay's Meg Whitman ranked second, while Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso was fourth, Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy fifth and Lucent Technologies CEO Patricia Russo eighth.

Ranked 11th in the same category is Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Paris-based Areva, which offers products for nuclear power generation as well as computer components. Oracle Co-president Safra Catz also earned a spot in the Journal study, as eighth in the "In Line to Lead" category.

Other women making the list included Oprah Winfrey, who topped "The Owners" category, and Patty Stonesifer, president and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Stonesifer was in a category of her own, dubbed "The Grant Giver."

The Journal's study comes on the heels of a Fortune magazine cover story devoted to the most powerful women in business. In that article, eBay's Meg Whitman topped the list.

The strong showing of women leaders in technology runs somewhat counter to research showing that women's presence in the tech field has been dropping. Women comprised 33 percent of information technology professionals in 1990, but that figure was down to 26 percent in 2002, according to the National Science Foundation.