” I was having a ‘feminine’ day when I signed up.”
Just like engineering, I want individuals who naturally gravitate into those fields. I have seen the end result of individuals who were “encouraged” to those kind of fields, and jobs must be found for the “encouraged” ones that separate them from activities that can cause damage, since they cannot be fired due to their kryptonite shielding created by their plumbing. This is not to say that there are not plenty of excellent differently plumbed engineers and programmers, but as I said above, those ones generally gravitated to those fields by themselves and naturally. Encouraging people who aren’t naturally interested in the field helps no one.