Women in tech, from a man in tech

I didn't get into CS because I am anti-social. I got in because it's the awesomest thing ever. Why? If I trace back, I remember thinking it's super cool to be a "hacker" (Not in the diluted sense people use the term nowadays but actually people who would pull off things most people thought were impossible). And having many friends actually helps in this case because the more friends think I'm cool the more I will put my effort into it.

If you think deeper about why this is the case, I think it was because most of my friends also thought it was the coolest thing ever. It is very cool to be able to do things that other people are unable to do. This is probably because guys tend to have more guy friends than girl friends. If I had more girl friends, I probably may have grew up valuing different things.

Which means, I think the core reason why there aren't enough girls in tech is NOT because the industry treats them badly (Not saying that's not true, but just saying that's not the most important reason), but because of the difference in social environment girls and boys grow up in.

Basically if you're a girl in elementary school who want to become a hacker, probably very few of your friends will think you're the coolest person ever. What happens then? Then you don't feel as motivated to learn to program as if you were a boy.

At this stage these girls and boys couldn't care less about if Tech companies will pay them more or not in a decade. They just want to do things that are considered cool by their peers. For boys hacking tends to be relatively higher up (probably lower than sports though), while for girls it's pretty much at the bottom.

That's why I think all this "gender equality in tech" issue is something that you can't solve by hiring more women and stuff. It won't work if it doesn't naturally happen since everything was determined during our youth.