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I don't know either. Thoughts/questions: - Can we compare the case of legal/medical to software? Especially, have the legal/medical fields been so unbalanced a

I don't know either. Thoughts/questions: - Can we compare the case of legal/medical to software? Especially, have the legal/medical fields been so unbalanced as software is right now? (Not implying it was, honestly asking). And if it was, as you ask yourself, what mechanisms helped bringing balance? - Regarding the specific case of sexism in software, early research suggests that the unbalance may have emerged in the 1970s as "the idea that computers are for boys became a narrative", maybe due to ads: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-women-stopped-coding http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/21/357629765/when-... . Admitting this idea, what about now? Yes, unlike in the 1970s, software is part of everyone's daily lives. However, the "computers (and STEM) are for boys" myth isn't dead.

ashark 10y ago
The effect there was pretty rapid. Did it somehow take hold far more strongly than the earlier narrative (whatever that may have been)? It seems like the marketing has become quite a bit less dude-centric, yet the trend continues in spite of everything. One would hope a similarly sudden shift the other direction could be effected, but that doesn't appear to be happening. Oddly enough, the two most obvious big drops on that graph appear to correspond pretty closely with drops in the total share of university students majoring in CS[1]. What significance that has, if any, I do not know. [1] http://core0.staticworld.net/images/idge/imported/article/itw/2014/05/14/npr_cs_degrees-600x400_0-100522183-orig.jpg http://core0.staticworld.net/images/idge/imported/article/it...