Most articles on this topic take the starting position that 'most IT workers are male, therefore the industry must be putting up barriers to female candidates.'

Most articles on this topic take the starting position that 'most IT workers are male, therefore the industry must be putting up barriers to female candidates.' However, I wonder if it's not more accurate to say that society puts barriers in front of anyone who's interested in an IT career, and males just find these barriers less difficult to circumvent. Nobody wants to be called a 'geek' but it seems more catastrophic for girls and women.