Here is how to test if women are discouraged: compare the fraction of autodidactes between men and women. Being an autodidact is a way to satisfy an interest q

Here is how to test if women are discouraged: compare the fraction of autodidactes between men and women. Being an autodidact is a way to satisfy an interest quietly and to avoid pressure, in contrast to classes. So if outside pressure hinders participation, it should hinder it less among autodidacts than it does among others. Thus, (# female autodidact coders) / (# female coders) should be higher than (# of male autodidact coders) / (# male coders). As an example, to learn more than broken Hindi I'll take a class because there is no social pressure against it. But if I want to learn about pickup artistry (which social pressure opposes), I'm going to do it on the internet. (Both examples chosen to be subjects best learned in person.) Anyone have data on this? But the way women are treated relative to their male peers is a massive problem within software, as opposed to the broader STEM fields. This is weak evidence against female treatment being the cause of underrepresentation. Math-heavy STEM fields (physics, math, electrical engineering) also have very few women.