One follows from the other.
The comment that started this thread did no such thing. In fact, the entire point of that comment was to argue that this is itself an unfair stereotype of the community (i.e. that such a belief is not prevalent).
It instead quoted a claim from the article - which indeed implies this in a vague, hand-waving way, by citing another paper. When I look at the abstract for that paper, in turn, I don't actually see the claim asserted; the closest it comes is
> Challenges that women face in OSS are mainly social, including lack of peer parity and non-inclusive communication from a toxic culture
Also, that paper in turn describes itself as "a survey of the literature".
The whole thing comes across to me as an act of citogenesis (https://xkcd.com/978/).
> One follows from the other
There are two ways to interpret this.
Either women are naturally worse programmers and that leads to less interest, or they are less interested in programming which makes women worse programmers.
Unless I am missing another interpretation, both imply women are worse programmers.
Second, maybe you got into it as a solitary activity as a child (I did too, long ago), but unless you work at a very, very unusual job, it's not at all a solitary activity these days at any normal company.
My workplace even had a sexual assault in the workplace training course where they coached us to stop co-workers from speaking if they started to disclose being victimized at work, I assume to avoid being legally responsible to respond appropriately.
That happens about as much in any field as long as you mix genders, so that is no reason to not want a software job.
Maybe it's just the company I'm at but be aware this was also the case in college. It was hard to make friends when it seemed everyone was cosplaying an anime character while simultaneously bragging and trying to make me feel bad for my achievements, or lack thereof.
to anyone.
Keep in mind also the media they might consume. I mentioned anime cosplaying in real life - and I mean it. Now, look at how anime depicts women. They're sexual objects for men's enjoyment and entertainment.
But perhaps the biggest reason is men tend to get... overly confident in male-dominated spaces. This is something I've noticed since I was a child. All bets are off in locker rooms or at the poker table or in an online game. It's an opportunity to say the vilest things imaginable.
Yep, this is one big reason I hate being in all-male environments or workplaces. Men are usually much better behaved when there's some women around.
Men also experience more social pressure to be successful at work, or else are seen as not as worthy of respect as people or as romantic partners regardless of their personal goals and values.