Why is it a problem? I personally think it's a problem that there are so few women coal miners. Clearly this is a sign of deeper societal problems. We need to get women interested in coal mining at a younger age to help solve the gender gap in coal mining. Once we solve that we can tackle diversity in professional basketball and hockey. Obviously more white and Asians should be in the NBA and more blacks in the NHL. That the ethnic breakdown of these particular sports doesn't match up with my personal beliefs can only mean one thing: everyone is racist.

It was a problem that there weren't more women mining coal when mining coal was an up and coming industry and one of the best ways for people to get ahead economically. It just wasn't really talked about because that was then and this is now. But we still see the ripples of "men's work" being the most lucrative in that era, and it's very laudable to try to reduce those same ripples from our own era emanating into the future.

For as long they have conducted the survey, its has been quite stable Swedish statistics that women in average prioritize social status and work environment over pay, while men prioritize pay over social status and work environment. Statistics from other sources like dating sites has also shown the same priority, where profile from women (that mention work) more often talks about social status and coworkers, while profiles from men that mention work more often talk about earning money.

As such, I don't believe your statement that women mining coal was a priority for women when mining coal was an up and coming industry. Coal mining has always been a low status and dangerous job, and as such its been exclusively a male profession.

A similar situation currently exist with under water welding. It is one of the highest paying jobs there is, but its below average in social status and has a very risky environment. As one of the most lucrative area, you would think there would be a push by gender equality advocates, but no. The focus is only to get more women in jobs which has high social status, rather than to create change in current gender culture.

Thanks for the interesting comment! Do you have a link to that survey?

Is software low- or high-status work?

I did not save it, and search engines are not really great on finding specific news articles based on queries like "what women and men want". Too much noise.

I did find people who has done a similar study, like http://www.sverigesingenjorer.se/Global/Dokumentbibliotek/Ra... page 18.

As for software development, there has been quite a few movies so far about CEO's of large software companies. I don't think there is that many other professions that get hero worshiping like that, except for doctors.

> It was a problem that there weren't more women mining coal when mining coal was an up and coming industry and one of the best ways for people to get ahead economically.

At which point you're seen as only caring about equality when it disadvantages women, which isn't how equality works.

It's just as important that we have a gender balance in coal miners (and nurses and teachers and prison inmates) as it is for software developers.

>It's just as important that we have a gender balance in coal miners (and nurses and teachers and prison inmates) as it is for software developers.

Or maybe we should stop preoccupying ourselves with this equality of outcome nonsense because in a free market people are allowed to choose their own career paths.

It's clear that tech is the Golden mine of XXI century, so democratize this industry in particular is important.

There is nothing stopping anybody with an Internet connection and a little bit of curiosity from learning to code. The computer doesn't care about your race or gender.

This issue strikes a chord with me because I spent years programming while others called me a nerd. Now that my skills are useful people claim I must be doing well because of my sex and skin color.

> It's clear that tech is the Golden mine of XXI century

What's the evidence for this claim? I think tech is fun, pays for a good standard of living, and is a solid career choice for any person entering the job market. However, according to the bureau of labor and statistics, you're still better off going into a host of fields like medicine, dentistry, airline pilots, law, and finance.

[0] http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm

I think it's a skewed view based off looking at the billionaire outliers, not the majority of us mere peons.

So your recommendation is that Facebook completely ignore lack of diversity and rely on childhood mentorship and less tendency for CS to attract men in college to fill in the gap in twenty years?

The problem is you can't solve it from there. If men are 90% of the qualified applicant pool, all you get by hiring 50% women in one company is that four other companies that size then have to be 100% men. How is that better?

The obvious conclusion is that math is racist.