shocking.lol. while def has correlations to the dev/startup community, HN is a very low design site, super info driven, seems like that would appeal more to male demo then female.
I don't think it has anything to do with the design or the fact that it's info driven as it does the type of content. 12% was the amount of females graduating in computer science last time I checked, so it actually matches up pretty well.
Seriously, any other explanation for this is like noticing that 50% of the US population doesn't have a uterus and deciding, "Well, birth control is very popular in more highly developed nations, so maybe Americans commonly have their reproductive systems removed."
I wouldn't say its a very 'low' design site as much as it is a very 'simply' designed site. I find HN to be very easily browsed and wouldn't have it any other way. The simple design shouldn't have any bearing on the number of female visitors to HN.
disagree, there are the blatantly obvious reasons as stated in comments above. Women do read tech news sites but I think HN design is more appealing to men. Not the core reason for the audience stat but an aside.