You complain some men attack any analysis about gender imbalance in IT, and then attack the same men for being surprised that women can do the same work…
This (according to some – yourself included, by the sounds) demonstrates why such gender imbalance exists – yet it’s a bit of a catch 22. The more people complain about any imbalance and insist it exists, the more people will deny it does and do nothing about.

Clearly I’m one of these men that defends gender imbalance to the death:
Personally, I think a Gender imbalance in a field that has only recently lost some of its’ sexist attitudes is natural – if people are hired on their ability to do a particular job then (assuming men and women truly are equally capable) you would expect 50% of new hires to be men and 50% women. This would only balance gender over considerable time (suppose {figures made up} that there are 1,000,000 IT workers, and that 1000 new are hired every year, while about 700 retire/leave. After 10 years, 7,000 men have left the industry, 5,000 women have entered and 5,000 men have entered. This means that there are now 1,003,000 IT employees, of which 5,000 are women – Despite perfectly balanced hiring processes.)
Are people really that stupid that they think gender balance would occur the second that gender equality is accepted?
I frequently hear the same argument about “but there are far fewer women in management positions”…Exactly the same thing – because the industry has only recently acknowledged gender equality, many of the women (who someday may make great managers) haven’t yet gained the experience of their peers….

Any claim that there is Gender inequality because there is an observed Gender imbalance is simply drivel made up by people who have no ability to think something through before opening their trap.

Nonetheless, congratualtions, you make my top 9 list of things that put me in a bad mood.

Grow up!! It’s attitudes like your’s that stop people succeeding in the world – it is easier to find an excuse why someone else is to blame for all your misfortunes.

That being said, there are a lot of cool men in my field as well. But I’ve been around long enough now to know that my next move is to own my own company. One last thing! I think it’s very telling when a project is presented with the developer as anonymous, and then when it is known it was me (or another woman) the surprises…. that is either a) gratifying, or b) annoying, or c) both.

Okay. thanks!

The open source community is not completely full of jerks. Yes, I am being serious. You might ask Valerie Henson her recipe to success. Not only is she a Linux kernel programmer now working for redhat, she is an especially talented one. If at first you don’t succeed…
http://www.valhenson.org/

Sorry.