[hbd]

I think a lot of men actually stay away from technology both for the same "cultural" reasons as women and because of the lack of women. I know you generally start college earlier in the US, but when you get older you start thinking about what friends you'll spend your life with etc. When you're 23-25 the prospect of spending 5+ year in a quite homogeneous environment can be unwanted.

This might be a complete misconception, but I've gotten the impression that American twenty-somethings are quite childish. And with people attributing Israels startup success partly to youths "growing up" during military service (which I don't recommend), mixing things up seems like a good idea.

This is not aimed towards your comment, but I've notices that a lot of the time when non-technology and especially social science topics comes up here at HN. Everyone seem to disregard research and suddenly becomes experts based on what they feel. It's quite obvious that most people here aren't going to be experts in sociology or women's studies.