P.S.: it's funny but I knitted. My aunt taught me and I knitted a scarf. It rolled up and became a tube, and I lost interest after that fail. :-)
I have to agree: if you like something, you just do it. But I guess a lot of people just can't bear to do anything without getting approval from their social circle first.
I'd like to see a source on a paper that finds evidence that supports this theory.
As far as I know all the gender study department grant money thrown at this has not been able to produce data to convincingly affirm that hypothesis.
There's plenty of men, I believe, who would be interested in working with little children, but who avoid those professions because of the social stigma. It's sensible to avoid a profession if you think you're going to have a very hard time gaining employment in it, or will suffer a lot socially for it (many people seem to think such men are pedophiles).
But we're talking here about people learning something out of personal interest. You don't need anyone's approval to learn programming, nor many other things. But many things do require more resources to learn; aircraft piloting for instance. You're not going to ever do that for free, though you can learn some of it with a software simulator fairly cheaply. Sailing is another that comes to mind; that's pretty impossible to learn I think without having an actual sailboat. But programming is comparatively easy; all you need is a computer and internet connection, which these days are considered cheap and ubiquitous. The software is all free; you can download absolutely everything you need, including an OS. There's an absolute plethora of websites and forums to go to to learn more (e.g. StackExchange). The barrier to entry is ridiculously low. But you do need time, and personal interest and drive. Now maybe you'll have some trouble gaining employment after you've learned it, esp. since you don't have a college degree in a related field, but that's another subject. The original article here was about someone already working in programming, who didn't bother to learn another language.
I was told multiple times girls are just not good nor interested by people who knew I plan to study computer science. Had I not met teacher in school who showed me interesting parts and treated me realy equally, I would have no idea it can be potentially something for me.
If you would be a guy who work in kindergaden and knit for hobby, your theories about gender not matering would hold something. You have systematically picked occupations that have no risk in feminizing you nor has "but women do it naturally better" element of.