I think the most part of the decline is due simply to the effects of the Tech Bust.  We all know there were tons of people in IT that shouldn't have been in IT, but they got high paying jobs because bodies were needed.  I would be willing to wager if you looked at the percentages of men Paper-Certs to women Paper-Certs, the numbers were approximately the same.  It just looks bad by straight numbers (not percentages) because there always has been a lower percentage of women in the IT workplace.  Also, a lot of good people lost their jobs when their employers went bust and weren't able to get back into the workplace immediately.  People with non-IT work on their resume between then and now tend to be skipped over for most IT jobs because potential employers thing those people were the P.C.s even if they weren't. 

Now we have a situation where a lot of people were burned by the layoffs and the bankrupted companies.  Are they telling their children to find more stable careers?  Some of them probably are.  But I also believe a lot of those college students remember what happened when Mom & Dad lost their jobs and have decided on their own that they don't want to risk it.  Yes, the trend for women in IT is declining, but I believe it's only a matter of time until the woman start figuring out there are some good IT jobs out there that don't require hanging out in the good ol' boys' stable, being on call 24/7, or getting grubby doing IT support in a dirty warehouse environment.  And I truly believe that Database Administration, Business Intelligence and DataWarehousing are some of the best jobs a woman can get.  They tend to be more flexible than the Help Desk types of jobs, and, in my opinion, a lot less stressful.

And notice the article didn't mention anything about whether or not the number of male IT college students was decreasing, increasing or remaining stable.  I believe there are a lot of people, male and female, trying to avoid the "hot potato" of an IT career right now.  But it will get better.  After all, computers, networks and databases don't seem to be going anywhere for quite a while.