I think the gender imbalance is a symptom of a larger problem that affects competent programmers of both genders: An industry that doesn't take competent women

I think the gender imbalance is a symptom of a larger problem that affects competent programmers of both genders: An industry that doesn't take competent women seriously, doesn't take competence seriously. There were a lot of threads a few weeks ago about "what to do about all the incompetent programmers". The two problems are related.