Being a software engineer I&#x27;ve been involved in this discussion for several years now. And I don&#x27;t think it ever clicked with me so much as with this comment. Guys do find groups that are supportive, be it something like an MMO community, card game community, robotics clubs etc. While girls also exist in these domains they are pretty consistently outsiders. At older ages they will receive a ton of attention, much of which I would describe as predatory, and it is constantly brought up that they are attention-seeking if they actually embrace the space (stream on Twitch or what have you). I believe at younger ages they are just simply viewed as odd-balls who are tolerated rather then truly accepted.<p>Previously when viewing a thread like this I would take a perspective of &quot;It&#x27;s not discrimination, they just don&#x27;t want to do it&quot;. Now I want to think about it some more in the context of what I just said.<p>As a corollary however, is it really a good thing to push a gender towards a particular field? Anecdotally in the case of SE there seems to be a huge amount of anxiety, depression, and various social issues, that comes with the work load. I often wonder if my life would be better had I never taken to computers. Interesting food for thought, do any of us really know what&#x27;s &quot;best for us&quot; on a societal level?