This isn't completely representative of the industry, because it's measuring academic behavior, not professional behavior. So the problem is occurring not in th

This isn't completely representative of the industry, because it's measuring academic behavior, not professional behavior. So the problem is occurring not in the "industry", but rather in high school and early college, when students are being directed toward majors. How do we address it there? How do we convince girls going into college and African-American students to pursue programming as a profession? This is all the more maddening to me because I think computing as a profession and as a community is far less hostile in terms of race and gender than most career paths. The meritocracy, while hardly the libertarian paradise its beneficiaries like to imagine it is, is still quite real. It's very easy to create a situation where you are truly measured by the quality of your work. So rather than asking why the programming profession is hostile to women and minorities, you should be asking why society is hostile to women and minorities entering the profession in the first place.