I think it's literally because those other professions have strong gate-keeping institutions (licenses, etc), and programming doesn't. For better or worse I thi

I think it's literally because those other professions have strong gate-keeping institutions (licenses, etc), and programming doesn't. For better or worse I think that influences the perceived difficulty and prestige. (Note, I'm not suggesting that we need gate-keeping institutions, just that they do have an effect on how professions are seen). I think programmers are also sort of at fault for this. How many people try to increase their perceived status by talking about how some hard thing is actually super easy to them? While it might elevate their status among their peers, it reduces the status of the profession as a whole (granted in microscopic increments, but still, if a project manager hears "this is easy" all the time, they're going to start thinking these things are easy). Finally, I also think as a profession we don't do a great job of just presenting ourselves as professionals. How many coders (myself included) tend to look like slobs all the time? If you watch TV, all the other professions look sharp, and anyone tech related tends to look like they just climbed out of bed. Just saying, perception matters a ton.