I genuinely believed that developers are more-less 50/50 in terms of male/female balance. But when I first discovered stateofjs.com website.
When ...
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Well honestly this is probably a pretty loaded question when you think about how deep it goes, considering your mention of WWII...
So to keep my response short enough to count, it's many things, systematic oppression from the past, women still finding themselves in the modern day, Confirmation biases (as you said) perhaps lack of awareness...
For instance many women play video games but still not as many as men and that Contributes to the overall tech landscape.
Long story short:
We're still trying to figure it out.
There is little to connect people who enjoy Video Games to people who take a deep interest in all aspects of programming. For the most part, Video Games are a great diversion and social tool, but few people can say that they can make it a long term career. Of those women I have come across over the years in IT, almost all of them saw it as a stepping stone for management and few had interest in video games. It always seemed surprising when the one language the woman managers knew was Cobalt and had no interest in learning other programming languages. The other languages I came across women programmers was SQL and C#, but they did not appear to have a deeper interest in things like multithreading, error handling, or performance. That said, this is not something limited to women. Also, I know a woman programmer who codes in C#, and her interest is in Management and not continuing a career in coding. As a man, I do not profess to know how to influence a woman in becoming interested in something, but I am positive that playing Video Games is not the answer.
Well. With all due respect, you're referencing women you personally know
We are talking about the greater trend of less women then men in tech and specifically, programming I believe. With that being said, props to all those women you're referencing however, there is lots of connection between men, women and video games, there are Plenty of studies to show the links Bru to keep brief.
Man make computer, man make game on computer, man buys game on said computer, man wants to know how to make own game, boom lots of men trying to make games and other things.
Go to LinkedIn and there are Plenty of women in the industry just not as programmers.
Please, put links, by saying "I'm making it brief", you're just being lazy. Make it 10,000 words long, I think it's worth it if this will definitely prove your point.
I don't need to. Again, with all due respect this is a discussion #discussion to be exact and not a debate or any argument.
My point about video games and men wasn't nt meant to be taking as fact but as simple example of how things like early exposure, systematic oppression (as I said before) and men predominantly owning every professional field..
To make the picture clearer, while men were building computers and bombs for the government in the 30s 40s and 50s, women were fighting to get the right to vote, meanwhile slavery was already abolished and we were working through the Jim crowe laws.
This isn't a modern issue, it's a symptom of issues that have prevailed for hundreds if not thousands of years, and we've only had a handful of decades to work it out.
Which circles back to my point of us still trying to figure it out...
However I'd like to note, your response and dismissal of everything I said along with the lack of real engagement in the discussion simply because you want a 10,000 word dissertation on a matter entire institutions are still trying to figure out.
You just don't have ones. A debate is a subset of a discussion, google it. And tags for better targeting not saying, nor for "we just say and prove". I think this is complex and serious topic, you reply with all the formality. But when you make a statement and I'm asking you to provide references, you're rejecting.
It's hard and kinda pointless to read any of your answers for you rejected giving ANY links and you think you don't have to.
sigh
Honestly I feel a bit stupid for serious coding: I can do the basic things, but thats too hard to make real and detailed decisions, my greatest problem is making apps look well on devices with various dimensions and proportions(((
So I have to ask guys for help. So sad they never have time...
I think that guys also have a less competency in that question.
My sort answer for responsivity ( HTML/CSS ) is to use a responsive metric to elements:
rem, vw, vh, %, vmin, vmax.
Start using tailwind next of CSS.
Don't spend time to setup own fonts, and colors.
Don't use any UI library, just pure HTML/Tailwind/CSS
Play with a different aspect ratio.
For a perfect responsivity setting need to be decide how will beheviour our app on a different aspect ration.
A longer answer can be found in my code: dev.to/pengeszikra/javascript-grea...
Don't think that's only up to females, basically that's how every beginner feels like.
Yep, I do agree. But sometimes i fall into "im just a girl I can't defeat this" feeling : ((( Just my personal feeling.
:(
@verypinkshark i only have one question for you. Why you step in this field? You can become a doctor or teacher than why you choose this?
There must be a good reason for that. There is nothing that you cant do. You just have lack of confidence🙂.
Maybe those stats show a skewed view of the women in javascript? When I asked chatgtp it returned numbers of 25 to 30 procent women.
It is still low, but I think it is closer to reality.
Over the years I seen more and more women. And I don't see that trend stopping, because today women are more likely to graduate than men.
I think JS shows it correctly since this is the most accessible and popular nowadays. I agree the trend is going on and I don't think it will stop until the imbalance is fixed.
But 5% of women for JS is true also by my experience - I have NEVER had a female colleague neither interviewed or talked to (basically 0% but I believe I wasn't so lucky).
I haven't looked at the stats, but ChatGPT is not a reliable source of information like this. Its responses are based on articles it's been fed, not on their veracity.
It gives the stack overflow developer surveys, the github octoverse report and slashdata developer economics reports as sources. It is possible it didn't get the numbers from the reports.
I'm not saying that is the most accurate data, but the number feels more realistic based on my experience going to tech conferences.
I also know women who are project managers or do Q&A, and code in their free time. They are not going to identify themselves as developer, but they are in my opinion.
That is why I think only 10 procent women who code is too low of a number.
So why you're referencing ChatGPT instead of reliable sources? Perhaps mentioning those surveys directly would've been more realistic, no? I know I mentioned only stateofjs, but they have 11,000 respondents, and as per internet, it's very much legitimate amount.
I don't think surveys are a reliable source. They are an indication. A real metric would be employment records based on gender and job description. But they are not public.
You experienced less women were you work, and I have no doubt about your experience.
I just have a different experience, and I hope you have no doubt about my experience?
I have never been to a js only conference, so I don't know if there are more or less women than at the tech conferences I visited. I've been to Microsoft conferences, PHP conferences and multi language conferences. I think i can say that I have seen different groups of developers.
I hope were you are, and in other places that are in the same situation, that evolution happens too.
If you see conditions of india, in urban places many girls do jobs. There parents does not stop them for jobs in todays time. Only a few parents who have different thinking.
But the girls themself dont have intrest in computers. Especially the girls dont have intrest in science and maths and computers. Many girls take science bio but not maths. For example if there is a class in engineering college with 20 students only 3 or 4 girls will be there.
Like i am the only one intrested in coding in my class but other girls are not.
Yep, exactly the same thing here in Russia, basically girls have no interest in tech jobs and there is a strong imbalance in boys/girls students ratio.
It’s pretty clear that fewer girls choose engineering, and honestly, it’s not surprising. Society, expectations, and a lack of role models play a huge role, just like in math—where many girls, despite having the ability, don’t pursue it further. The tech world is just a reflection of that. But hey, I probably just triggered a lot of people by saying this.
Historically, teams of women were used to calculate astronomy data. They were given the job title "computers". Early NASA mainframes were run and maintained by teams of women. And of course, there's pioneers such as Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper.
I suspect the turning point came in the late 1970s and early 1980s - home computers were somehow classified as "boy's toys". This wouldn't have been too much of a problem but computer programming courses almost always assumed you already understood computers before you joined (and had access to one outside of the classroom). This effectively prevented girls from developing those skills.
In my professional career, I've found that female developers have been significantly more talented than their male peers. This isn't favouritism - I suspect the reason is that all but the most determined developers manage to clear the hurdles which every step of the process puts in their way.
I have no idea how to solve this problem but I try and remain aware of my own bias and create an atmosphere at work which is welcoming to all.
Well said, probably this is yet another thing to contribute to that. However, you're likely referring to how it was in the USA, what about other countries, I won't believe it was this way in ALL countries at THE SAME time.
There is another side of it - designers, mostly I see that it's taken primarily by girls, and usually I don't have a nice discussion about design improvements, they usually don't accept any suggestions. However, I don't remember a single boy I was working with that would strictly say no to things I suggested.
This is obviously personal exp., so it may be a different story, but I feel like it's somehow alike.
Interesting clarification and good point about the difference in home computing between the US and the rest of the world. I was speaking from personal experience in the UK where bedroom coding on 8-bit computers exploded in the 1980s and felt very gendered in the way the products were marketed. But I'm ignorant of how it was in other cultures. I know that in Russia, there was a huge hacking scene on ZX Spectrum clones in the 1990s but I've no clue about the gender differences. The Soviet Union was, at least ideologically, in favour of gender equality but this didn't seem to have much impact in women rising to the top in some fields.
Thank you
Its a culture, education and discrimination for oportunities and space. A ssocial structure. The male chauvinism. Our empowerment to do what we want an validation in society is low a lot of fear. And because there are CEO of bigtechs in 2025 saing that need more "masculine energy" in the companies .... no more words about it.
I don’t think this is some kind of deep conspiracy or women avoiding coding on purpose. It’s just how society shaped career paths over decades. Coding wasn’t a "guy thing" until marketing in the 80s made it one. It’ll take time to balance it out.
You're probably referring to the USA case, what about other countries? Why it was this way all of them and trend started to appear only these years?
It's always funny when people act shocked about the gender gap in tech, as if it just happened out of nowhere. The truth is, women were some of the first programmers—back when coding wasn’t seen as a high-status job. Then, once it became lucrative, the narrative suddenly changed.
The idea that women just ‘choose’ not to code because they’re told to be more ‘girly’ doesn’t really hold up. If that were true, how do we explain the fact that women dominate medicine, law, and science in many countries? Maybe the real question isn’t why women aren’t coding, but why tech culture still makes it harder for them to stay...
Maybe, do you have any evidence of IT companies making it's harder for women? I want to see how it looks like since I'm not one, thus this must be a reason why I haven't never seen anything this way.
Probably the same reason why there are more autistic men than women. Our brains are diffrent
@dominikx20pl @verypinkshark all the people have different brain I accept. But its not a good reason that womens dont code. Its just your thinking. I also have problem in making new things but i try to solve them or ask from ai.
Coding is not too hard. Every thing is logical here. If you try your best you can make more complex things too.
I dont know how hard it is to make a app frontend design but if you ask me what is you favourite thing in web development i will say its the frontend part. Cause you can make great designs.
Our brains are slightly different, but basically the same from the biologic view. What's affecting our body the most are hormones, but it has no proven affect to inteligence.
To avoid breaking nails maybe
I hate long nails...
sigh