Look at the population of women in fields such as:law, medicine, social science, etc. and you&#x27;ll see that STEM lags behind in parity. The percentage of women in computing, according to some studies, isn&#x27;t much higher than it was in 1960! [2]<p>From my perspective as a software engineer, we work in a male-dominated field, and we&#x27;ve made the work culture and norms what we want them to be [1]. The few women who do end up on engineering tracks often leave, and in a lot of cases they move into engineering support roles (dev evangelist, marketing, etc.).<p>I think Adria Richards is a loud, exceptional example that doesn&#x27;t tell the story here. The reality is, this is a very quiet, insidious problem; women are walking away from our field, or just not showing up.<p>I don&#x27;t believe that half of the best of the best talent pool just doesn&#x27;t want to do engineering like the other half. There&#x27;s a reason they&#x27;re disinclined, and I accept that I&#x27;m part of it -- I&#x27;d like to see it change, and I think we have a responsibility to do better. I believe that as an industry, our future suffers for it.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usnews.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;stem-index&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2015&#x2F;06&#x2F;29&#x2F;gender-racial-gaps-widen-in-stem-fields" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.usnews.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;stem-index&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2015&#x2F;06&#x2F;29&#x2F;ge...</a> [1]<p><i>In 2013, only 26% of computing professionals were female — down considerably from 35% in 1990 and virtually the same as in 1960. While the percentage of women in engineering has risen since 1990, the progress is modest –rising from 9% in 1990 to 12% in 2013.</i><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fortune.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;03&#x2F;26&#x2F;report-the-number-of-women-entering-computing-took-a-nosedive&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fortune.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;03&#x2F;26&#x2F;report-the-number-of-women-ent...</a> [2]