We do agree completely...
because encouraging women to enter IT is at least part of what I was implying when I called it a societal problem. Men and women are still too stuck into the mindset that there are "male" occupations and "female" occupations. The only job I can think of for which one gender is a priori unqualified for is having a baby, although even this task generally requires some inter-gender teamwork. I used to date a woman who was a plumber. I know a woman who was a carpenter until her health failed. Men are nurses. There are many examples where each gender is invading the careers traditionally considered to be "only" for the other gender.
But is the reason that more women don't choose hard sciences and engineering a societal expectation or could it be that women often just don't find those careers as interesting as men? A nature-nurture problem? And the same question could be asked about men choosing "female" careers. I don't think we did anything to encourage them in this way, but I note that I never had to rescue my daughter from out of the high branches of a tree and my son never got very excited about a new pair of shoes. I don't have an answer to this but I think it is a question that needs to be answered. It may be that there isn't anything we can do about it if it turns out that women just don't like working in IT but I am afraid if anyone does find that to be the case, those "Guardians of PC" will pillory the poor sole who concludes that from his research.
