I think people who insist that 50% of developers should be women are nothing but sexist of high order who objectify as some number that needs to be bumped up. Women have different priorities than men. They prefer jobs that provide more security and more immune to gaps than jobs that require more attention. I don't understand why it is so hard for people to accept the simple fact that women have their own mind and preferences and it can be different than men ?
P.S. This is not to say there aren't gender issues in any industry. But I dont think it is as black and white as people make it out to be.
Punishing merely makes people afraid to tell you their ideas, which means they just go on believing them. How does that help?
This whole thing is way overblown, imo. If, for some reason, far more women want to be doctors than engineers, then good for them. The last thing we need are grumpy doctors who treat their patients like machines, or bored engineers who make a special snowflake out of each server.
Imagine how ridiculous it would be, if when I was enrolling in uni, an advisor had said something along the lines of "Are you sure you wouldn't rather be a doctor? Because we need more male doctors, and the engineering fields are way over their quota for males. In 4 years, you might not be able to get a job in that field, unless you discover that you are actually a woman in a man's body."
careers such as nursing, teaching, and (ironically given the op) human resources seem to be highly gendered towards women.