&gt; Previously when viewing a thread like this I would take<p>&gt; a perspective of &quot;It&#x27;s not discrimination, they just<p>&gt; don&#x27;t want to do it&quot;.<p>Well, maybe that wasn&#x27;t exactly wrong.  Or rather, there are different motivations for entering the profession.  For males &quot;love of technology&quot; is a much stronger motivating factor, whereas for females it is &quot;job security&quot;, &quot;ease of entry&quot; and &quot;flexible working hours&quot; [1].  All other factors surveyed were not different.<p>When it comes to experience in the job, the only difference found was that women received <i>greater</i> support and mentoring from their superiors.[2].<p>This is from a study published in the Communications of the ACM as &quot;Women and men in the IT profession&quot;[3].  Although not as interesting an anecdote as the NY Times article, and not fitting the current narrative, the study does have actual <i>data</i>.   It concludes that women and men in tech are more alike than different, that the primary difference coming in is &quot;love of tech&quot; vs &quot;good benefits&quot; and that the biggest difference when in the field is that women get slightly better support from their bosses.<p>Come on in, the water is fine!<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;deliveryimages.acm.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;1320000&#x2F;1314229&#x2F;figs&#x2F;t1.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;deliveryimages.acm.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;1320000&#x2F;1314229&#x2F;figs&#x2F;t...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;deliveryimages.acm.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;1320000&#x2F;1314229&#x2F;figs&#x2F;t2.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;deliveryimages.acm.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;1320000&#x2F;1314229&#x2F;figs&#x2F;t...</a><p>[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cacm.acm.org&#x2F;magazines&#x2F;2008&#x2F;2&#x2F;5453-women-and-men-in-the-it-profession&#x2F;fulltext" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cacm.acm.org&#x2F;magazines&#x2F;2008&#x2F;2&#x2F;5453-women-and-men-in-t...</a>