My perspective on female programmers
Setting aside the obviously sexist tone, one thing I've noticed (aside from the dearth of female programmers) is that, at least on my team, the female programmers seem MUCH better at asking good questions. While I realize the sample size is too small to be even remotely scientific, I have a couple of observations that seem to hold true. Female programmers seem to do "just enough" research before asking questions and can frame the question in a way that makes reaching the crux of the question very easy. Too often with male programmers (especially junior ones), I get questions that amount to "I'm stuck and I don't know what to do" ... with no background or research ... so I end up playing a game of "did you google the error message?" "what is it you're actually trying to do in the big picture?" or "what have you already looked at?". Worse yet, with many male programmers, they will have spent a month rewri...