Are most programmers male?

[terry]

Sorry, but I had to go back to the original post to examine the 
enlightened viewpoints of Carl.

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No, the reason I think women are reluctant to be programmers is 
that they don't want to study something where they'll be 
outnumbered by men 20-1 or whatever.  It's the same as a man not 
wanting to take cooking class because he would be the only man in 
the class. 
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Sexist rubbish on both ends!  I don't know what the men and women 
are like in the hills of southern VA, but in most of the rest of 
the world being 'cooped up' with 20 humans of the opposite sex 
for a long period of time is not a negative experience.  Maybe 
it's the fields full of cows down there .....

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1. I don't think women prefer "abstract logical thinking" more 
than men; more women tend to think emotionally than logically.
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You are referring to outward expression, not professional 
performance.  You cannot state any study where emotional response 
has been demonstated to negatively effect group performance when 
applied with genuine concern for the organization.  You are more 
likely to find studies where the inclusion of emotional thought 
enhanced the performance of the business unit beyond it's ability 
to perform based solely on pure logic.

I have worked with close to 50 engineering/software 
organizations.  The major performance problems of those 
organizations are related to interpersonal relationships - not 
technology.  Someone who will emotionally stand up and say "this 
is bullsh*t" is more valulable than the best software developer 
who sits meekly with HIS code.  And, it takes emotional thought 
to arrive at this conclusion - not logical thinking.  Diversity 
of thought processes is not a valid measure to indicate the lack 
of potential to positively contribute to a group effort.  

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The important thing is that people are free to pursue their own
interests, without interference from cultural prejudices.
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Aren't your comments above both cultural prejudices?

There is a lot of dull boring repetition involved in programming, 
when you have to work for a business that is.  It could be that 
the employment imbalance is caused by women being much more 
perceptive in their choice of professions than little boys who 
grow up playing with car toys, and who don't realize how simple 
their construction really is, until they've wasted a lifetime 
pursuing their machines.

Yes, I'm male - even tho I have a 'girl's' name.

terry