Ok so I&#x27;m a girl who codes&#x2F;programs and I&#x27;m my take on the issues she raised:<p>Stereotypes about STEM fields putting girls off<p>I can only talk about my own experience but I saw very few negative stereotypes about STEM fields growing up. Definitely not enough to put off girls.<p>However, while I did start coding at a young age, I didn&#x27;t apply my skill to a work&#x2F;business purpose until my twenties.<p>Why? I think this issue affects both genders actually. I was simply never exposed to people or situations that showed me you could built really cool projects&#x2F;businesses with code. I never encountered anyone&#x2F;anything until ~20 that inspired me to take it seriously.<p>Maybe it has something to do with my gender but I think a lot of people these days are being forced way too early to commit to an education&#x2F;work track without being given to chance to explore what their options are.<p>It&#x27;s hard to discover you like a topic by learning it a classroom. I think co-ed &#x2F; internship programs at a much younger age will help a lot. It definitely would have helped me discovered my true passions younger.<p>About being feminine<p>I don&#x27;t feel un-feminine in any environment where there are more guys than girls. Rather, I think the problem is, the professional&#x2F;business world as a whole rewards and values masculine traits (competitiveness, talking highly of yourself and accomplishments, etc.) much more than feminine ones.<p>Even in dress, women are encouraged to dress like a man (power suits, solid colors, etc.) in professional settings to be taken seriously.<p>Thus as a girl, you&#x27;re forced to act more masculine to achieve business goals. But it&#x27;s hard to suppress your natural state of being. Additionally girls are still expected to (and want to) act feminine in their personal relationships so women &quot;who want to have it all&quot; have to toggle back and forth between being masculine and feminine. It can be exhausting.