A few years ago I heard someone push the premise that women were simply too smart to acquire or keep a career in the tech industry. While sweeping generalizati

A few years ago I heard someone push the premise that women were simply too smart to acquire or keep a career in the tech industry. While sweeping generalizations like that usually set off my spidey-senses, this hypothesis might actually have merit. The short version is that women won't put up with the (lack of) work-life balance, long hours and constant on-call status. The successful women I've worked with all stayed because they simply love it (like I do) but it's entirely possible that this is something that even young girls notice when they avoid IT related curricula. To get back to the topic at hand, I think the best way to get women involved in more conferences is to have more "tenured" women in the industry. And the best way to do that is to that is to recruit more into the industry and to make the industry more aligned with their desires. I'm actually not opposed to quotas for female participation at conferences ... I simply want to learn something from anyone that's put in front of me.