[ericathegreat]

I don't think women are more or less capable than men when it comes to coding. There's no particular aspect of the process which could make it strongly gendered. However, I regularly observe a selection bias, which sometimes makes it seem like women _average_ high.

Women who are mediocre at coding have no particular motivation to go into the profession. A lot of the messaging about the career is how hostile it is to women. If you didn't have a burning passion and a strong aptitude for coding, why would you opt yourself into that? You'd have to have a serious skill and/or passion for the field to want to even start.

For men, though, that hurdle doesn't exist to the same degree. Passionate, skilled developers still follow their professional dreams, but there are also numerous men-folk who ended up in programming simply because it paid well, or because it was a nice indoorsy type job. Without that first cultural hurdle pushing them away from the career, they slouched their way through university and got a mediocre job as a mediocre developer.

There aren't as many professional, mediocre female developers, because only because only those who are really serious and passionate bother to push their way into industry. As we approach 50/50 balance, I'm confident we'll see a much more balanced mediocrity as well. :)