It kind of pains me to consider this, especially since it's one of the reasons I got involved with software development in the first place—but I wonder how much these issues are caused by the field's close ties to geek/gamer culture.
I know I love being able to work with people that caustically say "Make it so" when they deploy to master. I love being able to chat about the latest videogames with my coworkers over lunch. I love being able to swap scifi/fantasy novel recommendations and stumble upon test user models named things like "Zaphod." It brightens my day to see references like that, and having so much common ground to talk about with my coworkers is quite frankly a new and exciting experience after having to deal with being the odd person out through most of my time growing up.
But I also can imagine that being forced to deal with what is essentially a foreign culture 24/7 would be really alienating and probably a little frustrating for your average person. No common interests, all these weird references littered through the code and the jokes people make over coffee that you don't get because you never played that one videogame that came out in the 80s. And women tend to be into geek/gamer culture less often than men are, so you would see gender discrimination arise out of that, however unintentional. I read a study recently that found that female undergraduates are less likely to say that they would be interested in computer science as a career if asked about it in a room decorated with Star Trek posters vs a room decorated with generic nature posters (http://depts.washington.edu/sibl/Publications/Cheryan,%20Pla...).
I don't have any kinds of solutions about this. Like I said, that's one of the things I really love about my field. But I think it might be contributing.
I know I love being able to work with people that caustically say "Make it so" when they deploy to master. I love being able to chat about the latest videogames with my coworkers over lunch. I love being able to swap scifi/fantasy novel recommendations and stumble upon test user models named things like "Zaphod." It brightens my day to see references like that, and having so much common ground to talk about with my coworkers is quite frankly a new and exciting experience after having to deal with being the odd person out through most of my time growing up.
But I also can imagine that being forced to deal with what is essentially a foreign culture 24/7 would be really alienating and probably a little frustrating for your average person. No common interests, all these weird references littered through the code and the jokes people make over coffee that you don't get because you never played that one videogame that came out in the 80s. And women tend to be into geek/gamer culture less often than men are, so you would see gender discrimination arise out of that, however unintentional. I read a study recently that found that female undergraduates are less likely to say that they would be interested in computer science as a career if asked about it in a room decorated with Star Trek posters vs a room decorated with generic nature posters (http://depts.washington.edu/sibl/Publications/Cheryan,%20Pla...).
I don't have any kinds of solutions about this. Like I said, that's one of the things I really love about my field. But I think it might be contributing.