[DanBC]

> Disparity (e.g less women in Tech) is NOT a problem in itself.

Sure it is. Lack of diversity means lack of understanding about other uses. It also means that biases can go unchecked, and can develop into accepted wisdom.

> Also, why is IT somewhat different?

Because the (false) reasons given for other occupations don't apply at all for tech. "Men are stronger, that's why you don't get women in construction"; "women are nurturing, that's why they make good nurses".

> I don't see much push for more female fishermen or male nurses, to name two random professions with similar disparities.

Have you looked? I'm not sure about fishermen, but there are many programmes to increase the number of men in nursing, or women in construction.

[coldtea]

>Sure it is. Lack of diversity means lack of understanding about other uses. It also means that biases can go unchecked, and can develop into accepted wisdom.

But if "lack of diversity" in the ratio of men/women working on IT is an issue _for the reasons you mention_, it means that you accept that men and women have different interests/thinking (uses/biases), and can bring different perspectives.

In which case you should also entertain the idea that women might just not like IT style jobs and the kind of problem solving people do in programming. That's a different bias/perspective too, after all.

>Have you looked? I'm not sure about fishermen, but there are many programmes to increase the number of men in nursing, or women in construction.

Citation needed.

[DanBC]

> Citation needed.

They're not hard to find. Australia, UK, US examples for females into construction:

http://www.heatingandventilating.net/news/news.asp?id=6255&t...

> A successful initiative set up to support women working in the construction sector, has been granted £420,750 further funding to continue.

> The government-funded Women and Work: Sector Pathways Initiative is led by Construction Skills and aims to help get women into construction work and supports women already working in the sector to get further training.

http://civilconstructioncareers.com/women-in-construction.ph...

> The Women in Civil Construction Initiative will directly address the skills required for entry to the civil infrastructure sector of the industry. The Civil Contractors Federation (CCF), in collaboration with their funding partners Construction Skills Queensland, is delivering a flexible based program designed to deliver the entry level skills required to participants who wish to pursue a career in the Civil infrastructure sector. The WIC program is already underway within Queensland.

http://www.construction.co.uk/construction_news.asp?newsid=7...

http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/news/136592/new-program-to-...

Men into nursing: http://aamn.org/

Men into early years educations: http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/working-groups/men/

[mkr-hn]

> Sure it is. Lack of diversity means lack of understanding about other uses. It also means that biases can go unchecked, and can develop into accepted wisdom.

I wonder if that would explain why all the faculty treated me like garbage in K-12.