My wife worked as a programmer for a while. There were two aspects that drove her out. First was the cliquey nature of the guys she worked with, she just felt like she didn't fit in. Second was the rate of change, just as she felt like she mastered something the new flavor of the month would take hold and she had to start over.

A man would feel unfit in exactly the same way when put into an environment composed of mostly women (e.g. teacher in ground education). No surprise here.

Then, your wife must have worked with dynamic web pages (a.k.a. web applications), probably frontend, to have that tool churn. Other areas don't change that quickly and even then new tool allows to use most of the past experience.

What is she doing instead now?

When our first child was born she decided to take a sideline sales business and make it full time, working from home. She does very well, in her peak year she made more than I did.

Google offers 18 weeks of maternity leave, and (according to the article at least) they still aren't doing any better than the industry as a whole. I also wonder how much of this perception is the result of a society that tells some groups that everyone is out to get them. Related: https://www.reddit.com/r/TiADiscussion/comments/5arevk/new_t...

Maybe they are inadvertently out to get them? Other than anecdotal stories telling otherwise the numbers show that there is something about the culture that women find openly hostile. We can either tell them to 'get over it' ('thats just the way it is') or change the culture. I don't think the former will work.

Could you qualify the particular geographic area you're referring to. Google are a multinational, only giving 18 weeks maternity leave would be illegal in the UK, for example (https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/leave).

Presumably the U.S., but my source doesn't specify.

My wife is white, PhD in engineering. She choose the field because that is what she was excited about and wanted to study. Still works in Tech. Is a mother. Not so great maternity benefits though.