The more role models there are, the more it will encourage other women to choose internet networking as a career

Marianne Kolding, report co-author

The study says industry and government must work together to encourage women to consider networking as a career, to overcome a skills shortage in the future.

"Our research shows that the focus for attracting more women to networking should not only be at the education level but also the retention of women already in the profession," said Ms Kolding.

"The more role models there are, the more it will encourage other women to choose internet networking as a career."

Image problem

One of the reasons for the shortage is a perception that women are less able to undertake technical tasks than men.

It's a shame networking still suffers from an image problem and there is still a perception that networking is 'too technical' for women

Mike Couzens, Cisco

"It's a shame networking still suffers from an image problem and there is still a perception that networking is 'too technical' for women," said Cisco's Mike Couzens.

France is forecast to have the highest percentage of women in the networking industry, followed by Spain, Finland, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Norway.

In October, the UK Government said it would be introducing a set of measures next year to try to attract more women to pursue careers in information technology.