[mytailorisrich]

Women do not tend to choose to study IT and engineering subjects and thus end up being relatively 'rare' in these types of roles.

It's not down to companies.

Changing that requires a long term plan focusing on primary and secondary education. University is too late. In the UK many schools encourage pupils to develop interests in all subjects these days and to teach them that they can be whatever they want, so that girls may find that they like engineering and boys that they like nursing (for example). I think it's the right way forward but obviously it is a slow evolution.

[dllthomas]

It's my understanding that, within a given cohort, we see more gender equality at graduation than later points in time.

If that's the case, and especially if it's more so than other industries, then companies are likely to blame for at least a portion of the difference, although not necessarily at hiring.

[mytailorisrich]

In engineering subjects, in Europe, men are the overwhelming majority in university.

After graduation they may choose jobs differently than men.

Then women are more likely to stop working when they have children, or to choose a job with a schedule mores suited to looking after a family.

To me it still boils down to early education and to change the view of both genders on jobs and industries that are seen as "for boys" or "for girls".

[dllthomas]

> In engineering subjects, in Europe, men are the overwhelming majority in university.

In the US as well. But that doesn't tell us much about why. It's clear that it's not a first-order result of the behavior of companies; it could be a higher-order effect - for instance, students often choose a major based in part on the expected career to follow. If women expect to have a harder time in an industry that will impact their decisions, no matter how much we encourage them to like it.

So it might be "down to companies"; what you are presenting as evidence to the contrary isn't persuasive.

> After graduation they may choose jobs differently than men.

And they choose those jobs based, in part, on how they expect to be treated. Making sure they can expect to be treated fairly, can expect to find a job, and can expect good working conditions, is something that's within the purview of companies employing people in these roles.

> Then women are more likely to stop working when they have children,

This matches my understanding, but I don't think it makes up the bulk of the drop-off, much less the entirety. This is one part of why I suggested comparing attrition to other industries.

> or to choose a job with a schedule mores suited to looking after a family.

Schedules are within the control of a company. There are many engineering roles perfectly compatible with a light or flexible schedule. Meanwhile, nursing - the example you picked up-thread as stereotypically female - isn't known for either of those.

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I'm not saying that there's nothing to be done "upstream", in areas where individual companies have no influence. I am saying that present day companies do have things they can do to improve the situation; and that, insofar as we want to place blame, yesterday's and today's companies probably deserve some portion of it.

[lewisj489]

Yes it's not down to companies at all, the best fit should always get the job.

I guess in cities the ratios would be better. All the women in tech I know work in London.

I would say the UK is quite good at not gender shaming roles (Except nursing for males unfortunately)