It's obvious there are inherent differences between boys and girls. The question is: how far does it go? People are sensitive to the issue, because other people are liable to read a lot more into whatever scientific evidence exists than is warranted.
For example, it is very typical here on HN for people to say that "there are biological differences between men and women, so maybe women just don't want to work in programming?" Let's admit that the premise is true. Does that mean the proposed corollary is true? No, but that doesn't stop people.
People misuse facts about biological differences between men and women to justify preexisting prejudices. For example, people always point to gender differences to justify why there are fewer women in programming. But even if we accept the premise of stereotypical gender differences, why does that lead to the conclusion that the preference should skew for men? To me, it seems programming is more consistent with what we stereotypically think of as work more suitable for women: involving extensive social coordination, long-term attention to small details, etc. To use the "hunter/gatherer" analogy that is so often trotted out for this purpose: programming is a lot more like working in a group to nurture a field of wheat than setting out on your own to take down a mastodon in a short spurt of bloody combat (well maybe demo coding is like the latter, but shipping quality production software is like the former!)
In summary, people read a lot more into sex differences than are justified by the data by itself, and use that information to validate existing prejudices. That's why people get defensive about such studies and try to put the results into context proactively.
For example, it is very typical here on HN for people to say that "there are biological differences between men and women, so maybe women just don't want to work in programming?" Let's admit that the premise is true. Does that mean the proposed corollary is true? No, but that doesn't stop people.
People misuse facts about biological differences between men and women to justify preexisting prejudices. For example, people always point to gender differences to justify why there are fewer women in programming. But even if we accept the premise of stereotypical gender differences, why does that lead to the conclusion that the preference should skew for men? To me, it seems programming is more consistent with what we stereotypically think of as work more suitable for women: involving extensive social coordination, long-term attention to small details, etc. To use the "hunter/gatherer" analogy that is so often trotted out for this purpose: programming is a lot more like working in a group to nurture a field of wheat than setting out on your own to take down a mastodon in a short spurt of bloody combat (well maybe demo coding is like the latter, but shipping quality production software is like the former!)
In summary, people read a lot more into sex differences than are justified by the data by itself, and use that information to validate existing prejudices. That's why people get defensive about such studies and try to put the results into context proactively.