I disagree about the “equally important” stuff, and here’s why: If I’m wrong and the overwhelming majority of women really don’t like programming, I’ll have wasted some of my time, but no one will have been materially harmed[0]. However, if I am right, then there are currently a large number of people who are being pushed away from a career or hobby that could increase their overall happiness and/or standard of living if they were not being pushed out of it, and I see that as a potential tragedy.

Given how slanted these stakes are and how many times society as a whole has underestimated women as a whole, I think the right answer here is to err on the side of trying to get women and other underrepresented minorities interested into tech.

[0] bear in mind what I said about the particular way I’m putting my belief into practice and that I do not believe in “reverse discrimination” to even the scales.