[T-R]

> The tone of these conferences is not the reason women are not more involved

I'm under the impression that it is - some women have voiced objection to the tone, so we know it's at least the case for some, and we don't have any data indicating that those anecdotes aren't representative of the whole. In fact, since so few women go, those anecdotes are pretty significant.

> Math, Science and Engineering are boring for women

If that were true, it still wouldn't account for the significant difference between the number of women in CS and other STEM fields - we do, though, know that the tone of the community is the reason for some.

> Solution: Don't make them boring when kids are in grade school and high school

Certainly there are other (and more far reaching) issues, but the tone that we present as a community is one that we have more direct control over (with a very simple solution), and changing it to one that isn't perceived as hostile would have little negative impact.