[aklemm]

Having once worked in a female-dominated department of a large company and currently spending 9-5 as a stay-at-home dad, I can say it's not ideal to be surrounded almost completely by the opposite sex. Sure, we're adults and we can make it work, but it would be a relief if there were more men around at Li'l Tots French class on Wednesday morning, for example. And it would be more fun parenting during the day and I would advocate it more to other men if more men were already around during the day.

If women programmers are surrounded by men all day because 95+ percent of programmers are men, it makes sense that it's not an ideal work environment (not that it's unworkable, just not ideal). Until women reach a certain representation in the field (maybe 20-30 percent?), why not cluster together and make a point of working together? To say, "Being one in a hundred is just fine" seems to leave the problem unsolved.