The tech world has a significant gender gap. Actually, it's more like a gender Grand Canyon. Just one in three tech workers has two X-chromosomes, and female entrepreneurs only form 3 percent of tech startups.

The depressing numbers don't stop there. Only 12.33 percent of engineers in technology companies are women. Women only file 5 percent of tech patents, and they make up just 1.2 percent of contributors to open source software.

At the same time, some of the most visible tech executives are women. Think of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook (News - Alert) COO and author of "Lean In," and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, careers in tech may be becoming more appealing to the ladies. Of the 39,000 tech jobs created in 2013, 60 percent have been filled by women.

Facebook's Sandberg gives women in the workplace three principal pieces of advice: Sit at the table, make your partner a real partner and don't leave before you leave.

Sandberg says "sit at the table" because women underestimate their own abilities. Women tend to attribute success to internal factors while men attribute their success to themselves. As for making your partner a real partner, Sandberg points out that couples that share equal responsibility and equal earning have cut their probability of divorce in half.

To attract more female workers, the industry needs to overcome a significant pay gap. According to IT Manager Daily, female computer programmers make 5 percent less than their male counterparts. For computer software engineers, the pay gap is 9 percent; for computer and information system managers, the gap is 18 percent.

Additionally, although more women may be starting in tech, female-unfriendly workplace policies may hurt their career longevity. More generous maternity leave policies and flexibility for women with young children can keep women from dropping out of the tech workforce.

These policies bring us back to Sandberg's third piece of advice: Don't leave before you leave. In other words, when women start thinking about marriage and children, they shouldn't lean back. They should keep competing for promotions, and they should keep aiming for that big, spacious office in the C-suite.