The gender gap is every bit a society wide issue. When I was in middle school and high school, I didn't know a single girl who was interested in technology. This says that this issue begins when girls are young and is either something imprinted on them by society or something that is innate.
I haven't seen anything that suggests that our industry is more able to solve the gender gap than the race gap. Both of these problems have complex causes that extend far outside of the scope of what one industry can fix, but I don't see any reason to fixate on one at the expense of the other, which is exactly what we're doing.
>The gender gap is fairly unique to the tech industry...
This isn't unique to the tech industry at all. The gender gap is present in numerous blue collar professions--some of which pay very well (electricians, plumbers etc...)
>...and it is pretty extreme. My graduating class at Illinois for EE was 95% male.
And I'm sure you can find many equally extreme examples that demonstrate the race gap.
There are other gaps as well. Rural vs urban, rich vs poor, single parent vs 2 parent households. Yet none of these receive anywhere the press that the tech gender gap does.