[sudosteph]

Parents, teachers and guidance counselors are mostly to blame tbh. Media and pop culture plays a role too, though not as much as I think some folks say it does.

The fact that technical classes in programming are typically electives in high school, and not just mandatory science classes is a big part of it. Guys are more likely to self-select into those classes and take those classes with other guys (in part because video games are a great pathway to programming), and guidance counselors and parents are more likely to steer them towards it over girls as well. This ends up making it so that by the time college starts, many of the guys in intro programming classes have experience and set an unrealistic bar for total noobs who don't. Add in the fact that it's easy for a woman to feel singled out in a class like that, and it's no wonder they don't pick it up in college either. I was one of two women in a class of 50ish for CS 101, and even though I had prior experience, I felt pressured to over-assert myself so that guys would stop coming over every opportunity to offer "help". They weren't being jerks, but they were typical 18 year old dudes who wanted to show off and get my attention, and I just wasn't there for that. I'm not exaggerating though when I say it was typical for the other girl (who was a noob) to have 4-5 guys around her for any assignment seeing how they could "help" while noob guys were pretty much ignored. Harvey Mudd has an excellent program that addresses this directly, I definitely recommed reading up on it: http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-harvey-mudd-tec...

The single biggest factor that was common among women I know who switched into CS later (but did not initially consider it a major) was that their parents and school never exposed them to it as a career. Both are very rational and logical people, one was doing bio, and another was doing chemical engineering. Neither of them had ever taken a class about comp sci, or even really talked to a programmer before college. One never even had a game console because ultra-religious parents disapproved (though they gave her brother one). When I talked to them more about what I did day-to-day with programming, and how it was very creative and fulfilling for me (plus $$), they gave it a try and ended up switching majors and becoming software engineers. Obviously there are women I talked to who didn't switch, but those two are exactly the kind of people who might have missed out on a great tech career due only to gender socialization differences which seem mild at first glance. I strongly believe mandatory CS classes at the high school level would do a huge part in making sure minds like theirs have the chance to get on board sooner.