It's not programmers that are at fault for the lack of women in the industry. While there are stereotypes about the geeky programmer, those are rapidly dissipat

It's not programmers that are at fault for the lack of women in the industry. While there are stereotypes about the geeky programmer, those are rapidly dissipating with most of the populating spending just as much time in front of the computer as a programmer. From what I've seen and know the programming industry to be like, it's highly competitive and has a "if you can't cook, get out of the kitchen" attitude (which I'm not knocking as a fault). The root of the problem is that society doesn't encourage the competitive side of a woman. Men and women alike see them as being something of a bitch if they are even remotely competitive. Programmers see everything as a challenge of their mental abilities and women just aren't raised that way. So if you want you want to start seeing more women developers, start encouraging them to be more competitive. That is what the root of the problem is. (Although on that note, don't encourage them to compete with the boys, encourage them to compete with themselves first and foremost. If they compete "against" the boys and lose, it reinforces the idea that boys are better.)