[curun1r]

If these initiatives were really about helping out disadvantaged minorities, then you might have a point. But bridging the gender divide solves two problems that bridging the race gap won't solve.

The first is product sensibilities. While it's not better or worse, most women do think about things differently from most men. If a large portion of your customers will be women, it's really difficult to develop software that's intuitive and serves their needs if you don't have some female perspective when building that product.

The second problem it solves is keeping the best and brightest male developers in the industry. It sucks working in an industry where 90% of your coworkers are other men. When I was in school, there were a number of my classmates that switched away from a CS major simply because they wanted more girls in their classes. To a lesser extent, the same happens after people get into the industry and see just how few women they'll get to work with.

It may be cynical, but I think attracting white women to the industry is just as much about better targeting a rich demographic and keeping the white men we already have happy rather than it is about being inclusive.