I'm basing my assumption solely on the numbers... the vast majority of programmers are male, which can only mean either men are "better" at the job, or that som

I'm basing my assumption solely on the numbers... the vast majority of programmers are male, which can only mean either men are "better" at the job, or that some other factor is causing it. Since I don't believe men are necessarily better at it than women, then I'm assuming it's the "other factors". That's the bias I'm talking about. I don't know exactly what it is (surely a combination of factors), but there has to be some sort of cultural explanation for it if you don't subscribe to the notion that it's in the DNA. Bias doesn't necessarily mean discrimantion per se... it could be biased views of women themselves towards careers (which I think is what Rob Pike was getting at in this blog post... and hence that having more role models might offset this bias).