[adamesque]

I'm sorry, but "why?", by itself, is never a serious question.

Except in cases of extreme naivety, it's a challenge, or worse, a roadblock, posed to force a reexamination of the underlying assumption.

In this case, the underlying assumption is that the field of web development would be enhanced by a more equal ratio of women to men.

Your "why?" implies a host of reasons, bounded only by imagination, why this might not be the case — why we might be better off leaving this to the men — but luckily, you don't have to actually voice any of them.

So no, it isn't a serious question, and doesn't deserve a serious response here.

[tjic]

> I'm sorry, but "why?", by itself, is never a serious question.

I asked my question crisply and respectfully, taking the pro-diversity folks as serious and being people of goodwill.

I think it's disrespectful of you, not to mention logically deficient, to immediately start your attack by asserting that my question was not intended in good faith.

If you can't muster up a simple, respectful response to a simple respectful question, it doesn't speak well of your self examination on this topic.

[lotsofcows]

The problem with asking "Why?" is that you leave yourself open a retort of "Why not?". Unless your argument managed to cover that possibility (which yours didn't) it's not a meaningful question.

[unreal37]

This response seems a bit harsh for the question being asked. The poster went out of his way to outline 4 other hobbies that had unequal male-female ratios and that noone seems to be demanding blacksmiths include more women.

You seem to be saying the reasons behind having a 1:1 ratio are self-evident. And not saying that nicely.