[kahawe]

> They are mostly very nice guys, as far as I've observed.

This right here. An overwhelming majority of hackers, geeks and guys working in IT are so absolutely alright and wonderful to deal and hang out with and I cannot reconcile the average hacker with discriminating against women, this simply doesn't fit. On top of that most hackers will be so happy to have a chance to have girls around in an industry that seems to draw more than 90% men... look, it's not like we try to keep you gals out or anything, it's just that so many girls aren't even remotely interested in the strange things we do and of the ones who are interested still quite many don't make it through the programming courses in university then - or at least this has been my experience. The image of the hacker and our profession is definitely changing to the better nowadays, so there is something to look forward to. In my experience the average office full of true hackers is a wonderful place to work, no back-stabbing, friendly positive atmosphere and lots of fun to be had.

And I never had the impression that hacker gals actually get paid less for the same position, at least not in the IT industry? Or is it just as common a problem as in other industries?

[calibraxis]

Sexists/racists/homophobes are typically perfectly nice people; they just don't notice they're doing anything wrong.

Like the guy who calls everything "gay" when he finds something insufficiently male or good. And the last time I invited a female into my workplace, my male coworkers thought it was perfectly normal and funny to put down women's achievements. (And by mainstream standards, I guess it was.) She was fuming afterwards.

To be not-quite-so-sexist takes active work, because we are embedded in a sexist society. Being sexist is the neutral default. I think I'm sexist. Maybe every man I've met is.

[kahawe]

Never seen this around any of the true hackers I've met or worked with...

[bermanoid]

And I never had the impression that hacker gals actually get paid less for the same position, at least not in the IT industry? Or is it just as common a problem as in other industries?

It's better than in most fields, see http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-251007.html, for instance. From what I remember when I looked into this last, you'll find very different actual numbers from each source, but generally speaking, there is a very real gap (at least amongst older workers), but it's smaller in tech than most places.

The absence of a disproportionate pay gap would seem to cast a bit of doubt on the idea that this field is so much more misogynistic than most, though that certainly doesn't mean there's nothing to be concerned about. Those numbers also don't (I think) account for people moving "up and out" of engineering and into management, and I suspect those stats might make things more lopsided.