The challenge of getting more women in tech needs to involve the whole community - investors, entrepreneurs, engineers, both male and female. It cannot be a female only dialogue. I am a technical woman founder myself. And,my biggest challenge is fighting those subtle biases that men have. When I am in a meeting with investors, I find that I am treated in a patronizing fashion vs my male co-founders. Whenever the investor is speaking, he's addressing my male colleagues more and I am ignored. The only way to fight these is to make men aware of how they behave. Women already know it, since they are at the receiving end. Hence, I do not like closed, women only conferences.
It's great to hear that more female founders are applying. I hope this will have a snowball effect.
As a female University Student in Software Engineering, I have seen the interest and enrolment of female students in CS programs grow exponentially over four years. When first year and high school students have role models in upper years, they can imagine themselves in similar paths.