[manvsmachine]

There factor of risk aversion exists, but I'd argue not any more so for women than for men of the same racial groups. This is because the risk really isn't financial - these days everyone knows that there's tons of money to be made in tech. The risk is in prestige - doctors often become known figures in their communities in a way that engineers rarely do. Believe me, this can be a huge factor for people who grew up noticing that they were treated "differently" - minorities, immigrants, women, etc. If you are doing something awesome with your life, you want people to know about it; it can often mean the difference between being shown respect and not.

In response to Shamiq, this could be why most of the "underrepresented minorities" you see in tech are actually women; arguably, they have less to prove.