Professor Elanor Huntington, Ingrid McCarthy and Kirsten Waterman are all leaders in the science and technology sector in Canberra, and all have the same vision: to encourage higher participation rates of females in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and information and communications technology (ICT) careers.

The women united for a Canberra Wise Women and Australian Computer Society event on Thursday, and agreed imposter syndrome, unconscious gender bias and a lack of female role models all played a role in the low participation rates of females in STEM careers.

Professor Huntington, Dean of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, described herself as a "unicorn", and said the numbers of women working in computer science had been dropping catastrophically since the early 1980s.

"I am a female engineer and I am therefore a unicorn," she said.

"In Australia there are 250,000 qualified professional engineers and fewer than 1000 are women over 50.

"Participation rates of women in computer science peaked in 1984 at around about 30 per cent - and the numbers have been dropping catastrophically ever since.

"At the moment we have about 15 per cent female participation in [computer science programs in] our universities and that's despite the best efforts of the entire sector for at least the last five years."

According to Prof Huntington, several approaches being trialled in the US - including offering computational sub-disciplines at university, finding alternative pathways for people who "find the light late" and "de-bloking" the way women enter STEM careers - could also work in Australia. She said it took an order from a man four levels above her to convince her to step into a leadership role.

"We had a restructure and a new unit was formed and the head of that new unit approached me and asked me to be his deputy," Prof Huntington said.

"I said 'no, you've got to be kidding me. So he got his boss to ring me and ask me if I'd be the deputy and I said 'no, you've got to be kidding me.'

"His boss rang me and asked me to be the deputy and I said 'no'.

"So his boss rang me and said 'you will be the deputy' - and given that he signed all of my funding applications I figured I should say yes.

"So I think it's fair to say that I'm an accidental leader."

Ingrid McCarthy, local program manager for both Inspiring Australia and STEM Sells (Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship), said education innovation was crucial.

"Places like Finland, High Tech High in the States and Templestowe College in Victoria are challenging the curriculum and the 'I need to know this knowledge' siloed approach - and absolutely making it about kids and their passion," she said.

"Creativity and innovation and that entrepreneurial sense of 'I can solve a problem' - they're things our engineers need.

"They do need mathematics and science but that can be caught up really quickly.

"What they need is those diverse problem solving skills and my personal opinion is that our high schools are not currently providing that with their siloed approach."

General Manager of Datacom Kirsten Waterman said we still have a long way to go with gender bias.

"The challenges lie around the perceptions that STEM and ICT subjects are male dominated and that might discourage those girls on the cusp of wanting to explore some of those areas," she said.

"We need to be continue to inspire all children to be curious from an early age so that they develop a love for STEM when they are young and it is a natural progression. Strong role models are also important."

The next Canberra Wise Women event is on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at Vibe Hotel and features Jessica May, of Enabled Employment, Hannah Wandel, founder of Country to Canberra, and Lucy Baker, Pastor at The Spirituality Church of Canberra. More information at https://www.facebook.com/CanberraWiseWomen