I found it fascinating that the question we're asking is wrong. It shouldn't be "Why do women leave engineering?" it should be "Why do men stay in higher propor

I found it fascinating that the question we're asking is wrong. It shouldn't be "Why do women leave engineering?" it should be "Why do men stay in higher proportions?". It seems that being arrogant makes working as an engineer more palatable. I know I suffer from this problem and many of the men I know in engineering do too. So between dealing with self-doubt (the imposter syndrome) and being around a bunch of oblivious ego maniacs, why would anyone stick around? Honestly, this article just fed my confirmation bias. I have (ashamedly) believed that the reason there were so few women around me in engineering (specifically software engineering) is because they were too smart to be lured into the mind-numbing, sedentary, OCD-laden field by money alone. Leaving the number of women in the field approximately the same as the number of men who genuinely enjoy it. The rest of us are just out for a paycheck that most women deem "not worth it" (especially if the pay is not equal -- separate but related issue). I know that there are many cases that are not this simplistic, but in my experience, I have only seen women leave teams I was on for the same reasons as men (better position/pay elsewhere). I have never seen or heard of any Mad Men style harassment or the like in my immediate environment. I'm not sure if the coloration I have of normalcy is skewed by my experience or if the coverage of the gender gap has colored everyone else's. I'm sure this is what we're all asking ourselves in this industry the more this topic is covered. Regardless, it seems that we can't have these kinds of conversations as a country until pay is equal.