[_bfhp]

It's probably not the fault of the "programming world", but rather gender roles in their entirety, where boys and girls are pushed toward certain interests and away from others.

Programming is often seen as "geeky" (lesser so today than in the past) and girls are encouraged to "not be geeky," to fit in with their peers. Boys are, I think, much less socially penalized.

[eXpl0it3r]

It's something one can certainly think about and be aware of, but then again it's just a theory. Personally I haven't experienced this. I grew up with my sisters and they had the same exposure to computers as I and my brother did and there was never any pressure from my parents or us that computers is just a boy thing, but my sisters never had the same natural interest in programming. I actually even tried to teach a few things to them, but it seemed to be too complex for them and their own curiosity didn't drive them to learn more on their own, as I did.

While I see and lived that parents have an influence on PC usage at a young age, I wouldn't say they are push children towards or away from it, but I guess there is always something going on. I agree that every boy and girl should have the same chances on learning computer stuff, but I don't see it necessary that one has to artificially push girls or boys towards a topic. If they don't have the interest at the topic, there's no reason to teach them all about it, just so we can "solve" an imbalance.

I know some believe that interest is purely influenced, I can't agree with that. Interests can be hugely influenced, yes, but there are studies showing that there exists natural interests for certain kind of toys of around one year old children.