An imbalance existing does not imply that it is fair to right it. Taking a very rough approximation of the efficient market hypothesis, most career choices are approximately equally bad. You can only really choose what tradeoffs you want to make. Want to be a highly paid doctor? Prepare to spend at least 7 years doing long hours of difficult training. Don't want to do the training? Your choices are either low pay or physically taxing and/or dangerous work. Want to try to be a corporate executive? Most people who try spend many long, hard hours vying for corporate promotions and fail.
Software development is no exception here. Yes, it is a safe desk job. Yes, it pays well. It also has a pretty brutal and risky filtering process on hiring, significant cyclicality, high amounts of skill and learning requirements, and the role very often demands high performance. Oh, and you spend your time on work that tends to be less intrinsically rewarding and meaningful than something like nursing. These are pretty natural tradeoffs that make a lot of people decide that the field isn't for them, and the same sort of self-selection processes wind up with things like "roughly 90% of workplace deaths are male" too. I don't think it's fair to put your hand on the scales here for only one gender.
NB: I actually kind of regret getting into programming - I suspect I'd have been much happier if I went with my second choice and became an electrician.
Software development is no exception here. Yes, it is a safe desk job. Yes, it pays well. It also has a pretty brutal and risky filtering process on hiring, significant cyclicality, high amounts of skill and learning requirements, and the role very often demands high performance. Oh, and you spend your time on work that tends to be less intrinsically rewarding and meaningful than something like nursing. These are pretty natural tradeoffs that make a lot of people decide that the field isn't for them, and the same sort of self-selection processes wind up with things like "roughly 90% of workplace deaths are male" too. I don't think it's fair to put your hand on the scales here for only one gender.
NB: I actually kind of regret getting into programming - I suspect I'd have been much happier if I went with my second choice and became an electrician.