Women in IT pose for movie calendar

Some women are launching a rather racy calendar to promote females in IT.

The IT Screen Goddesses Calendar 2006-2007, featuring female IT professionals posing as film icons, will be released in Queensland, Australia, at Movie World on Aug. 11. In the meantime, pre-orders can be made through the IT Goddess Web site.

Sonja Bernhardt, a co-founder of Australian Women in IT (AWISE), is a spokesman to the IT Screen Goddess Initiative, and also one of its models.

"We are doing this to smash through the perception of the geeky technologist," says the IT Screen Goddess Initiative Web site.

The calendar includes recreations of sexy females in their famous roles, such as Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction," Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge" and a nearly naked Mena Suvari in rose petals from "American Beauty." The calendar is not all skin, however. Two female IT professionals pose quite primly in a reminiscence of Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway in "The Princess Diaries."

The calendar will be used to promote women in IT, and raise money for nonprofit groups that support initiatives to bring more women into the industry. The Web site also includes bios of the female models, which provide contrasting impressions to their pin-up poses.

"Ever since my brother and I received a Commodore 64 computer, I have been interested in IT. Growing up as a bit of a tomboy, my Dad taught me carpentry and how to repair cars so I found the mechanical part of computers very easy," says the bio for "Sonja."

While her response sounds typical of an IT professional, her nerdy-sounding bio is juxtaposed next to the steamiest shot in the calendar.

The Sydney Morning Herald first reported the story.