(Photo: twitter/reshmasaujani)

On its blog today, Twitter announced a new partnership aimed at changing that ratio. The company will be investing "time, energy and money," to partner with Girls Who Code, a intensive program designed to get New York City high schoolers comfortable with software development.

Girls Who Code was launched by Reshma Saujani, a former deputy public advocate under Bill de Blasio. Ms. Saujani, who is running for Public Advocate in 2013, has strong ties to the tech community both here and in the Valley. Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey and Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes both came out to support her (ultimately unsuccessful) bid for a Congressional seat from New York in 2010. She also recently married LocalResponse founder Nihal Mehta. (Mazel!)

On July 9th, Girls Who Code will kick off with an 8-week program to "teach basic principles of computer science and coding as well as sessions on design, research and entrepreneurship." Participants will be matched with female mentors from tech companies. Judging by the founder-heavy crowd at a recent campaign event for Ms. Saujani, we doubt she'll have any problem sourcing volunteers. Later this week, for example, she'll be cohosting a breakfast with Gilt Groupe founder Alexis Maybank.

As for incentivizing young ladies to the summer program, how about the possibility of a job @Twitter? Engineer Sara Haider writes:

We cannot wait to see what the future holds for Girls Who Code, and we certainly hope to hire at least some of the participants in a few years.

Pro-tip: Equity, girls. Ask for lots equity.