[spindritf]

The title is actually Why tech needs a makeover to attract girls but the article doesn't say why. Technology is at the forefront of the economy and women have a vital role to play feels rather empty.

And while I'm sure Brazil and India can offer insights and be on the forefront of improving policies, those are not really very enticing models to emulate. Let's be honest, women in India work in IT to get ahead because India is poor.

"I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."

Hipsters are living the dream. Most people don't want to slave away at the keyboard.

[mzahir]

Engineers and doctors are held in high esteem by Indians (not to mention a lot of other Asians) so no, the women in India do not 'work in IT to get ahead because India is poor'

[randomdata]

The simple answer to why is to increase the labour supply to decrease wages. Programming jobs are some of the highest paid jobs that employees can find right now, and people are looking to correct that. This is the heart of the matter.

The sightly more complex answer to why women (or girls) are singled out specifically is that in a male dominated field we can assume that the best males, who have any interest in working in said field, are already working in the industry. Attracting more males simply reduces the quality of the supply. When women are a virtually untapped market, you can attempt to bring in the best women, thus increasing the numbers without affecting the quality of the supply.

[einhverfr]

I am actually of the opinion that as the software industry matures, and in particular as the open source software industry matures, women will find that operating in the industry as a free agent is an ideal situation.

In short, I think the market is a much larger problem than anything else. It will happen, though.