[arnioxux]

OP's hyperbole took it too far by saying "good programmer". But if you change it just "top one percent programmer", it might not be too much of an exaggeration. Before I also get banned, I want to clarify that there's a difference between:

- "it's hard to find a woman programmer in the top 1%" because women can't be good programmers due to their biology

- "it's hard to find a woman programmer in the top 1%" because our society failed to train and produce them

The second statement isn't inherently sexist, it's just an observation of the poor state of our world.

If you're familiar with programming/math competitions you'll know that there are not many female represented there even after taking into account their smaller population: http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=AlgoRank. There are probably 500 "red" coders (which is roughly the top 1%) but with probably less than a handful who are female. All you need is a username to compete so it's pretty objective and gender-blinded.

So it seems exceptional female programmers are simply not being produced even as early as high school and college level. Google interviews are very similar to those competition so I assume their data will also uncomfortably show this.

[Mz]

I am the top ranked woman (in terms of karma) on HN. I was one of the top 3 students of my graduating high school class and one of the best high school students in my entire state. I was the state alternate for a gifted enrichment program one summer. That means only two students in the state outperformed me and I would have gone had one of them been unable to participate for some reason. I won a National Merit Scholarship based on having the highest SAT score in my graduating class.

Any time I try to tell people that I kick ass at anything at all, even just as an excellent mom, it is a total fucking beat down. It simply isn't okay for a woman to admit she is that good at anything at all. Ever. For any damn reason.

This means if you are a highly competent woman and you want to survive in this world, you learn to shut the fuck up about it. It also means that you are routinely denied the same opportunities as the men who are, in fact, allowed to say "Yup, I am that damn good" without it being a total fucking beat down.

Furthermore, breaking into a male dominated field tends to be a shit show where a woman has to put up with endless harassment by men who would hit that because Oh My God, It's a Girl! And she is interested in the same thing I am!!! The price of admission is just vastly higher than for men. You need far more than to just be as technically competent as the guys. You also need to be incredibly savvy about handling the endless social BS, incredibly thick skinned and so on. And then you still need to not brag lest it turn into a shit show and beat down for that reason.

[jacques_chester]

It's hard to find women programmers of any level because sexist valleymenschen deter them from from, or drive them out of, our profession.