negligible. It's actually very simple. Programmers are big money makers for companies, specially good programmers. Programmers are mostly male, that means there is almost 50% of the population that s not even considering that career. How much easier will it be to hire new programmers if the hiring pool would almost double? There is no such problem in other areas. Not other "mostly male" or "mostly female" career is as effective for generating money for employers or is so hard to get good employees.