Maybe it made more sense for the business to have you as a developer writing code and her as a manager rather than you as a manager and her writing code?
Then it wouldn't be a problem that there are few women writing software, wouldn't it? Because .. maybe it just makes sense?
No that is NOT my opinion, I just want to highlight the logic flaw I see here. You cannot say that the same thing (underrepresentation) is a problem in one case and not in the other, that's just .. weird.
Well he ended up leaving, so they didn't get him as a developer either. That's a significant catch 22 in a lot of these companies.
There's no path for promotion beyond "developer" without becoming a manager, but then you're not doing the work you're great at, so there's a disincentive to promote you, but the developers want to have career growth, so they get restless and eventually leave the company for a different one, usually getting a salary boost but possibly still being stuck as a 'developer' because they saw no advancement at their previous company.
I'm struggling through a similar situation now, although I have project management and team lead experience, I was never officially promoted because they were small companies and didn't want to bump my salary (or believed they had a flat heirarchy and "titles were meaningless").
It's 3 companies. Truth is, I don't mind having them as managers as long as promotion is fair and as long as I learn how to become a manager. Which I didn't either.
No that is NOT my opinion, I just want to highlight the logic flaw I see here. You cannot say that the same thing (underrepresentation) is a problem in one case and not in the other, that's just .. weird.