Indeed! And I'm not trying to argue that you should have learned programming earlier. Just that you weren't "nudged" away from technical topics as many times as

Indeed! And I'm not trying to argue that you should have learned programming earlier. Just that you weren't "nudged" away from technical topics as many times as a woman might have been. You would not, for example, have run into serious people who somehow believe (or seem to) that your whole sex is less capable of working in that area. On the scale of large populations, ideas like that would have an impact on enough career choices to move the needle. I don't think everything has to be 50/50 in order to be "right". But each person should feel like their choices in where and how to work are limited by their preferences, and actual success at carrying out the work, not by some BS assignment of "suitable jobs" made at birth.