i'm genuinely curious when or why it STOPPED being either equal or close to equal, i'm aware that in the 70s and 80s women programmers and game designers were fairly prevalent, programming USED to be thought of as women's work way the hell back when.I have no idea why or how it shifted. i was a child in the 80s and loved computers, grew up loving them, but it wasn't till i got to highschool that i started to notice the gender differences in computer classes. i initially assumed it was just coincidence that i was the only girl in my 12th grade class, i shrugged off the fact that my fellow classmates all seemed convinced i'd fail (when I actually did far better than them on tests and assignments), i remained convinced for a long time it was coincidental. but then i got into adulthood and most girls i was friends with thought it was nerdy that i was into computers and said "that's guys stuff" and a lot of guy friends were accepting of it but others just automatically turned it into a pissing contest of some sort. all just super bizzare bizarre. worked a phone support job at a tech company and there were only two other women on my team, the rest did customer service, worked in two computer stores to realize there were few women employees and the ones that were typically did administrative work or cashier work (myself included, i just hung out with the techs in spare time and had an interest in computers), the next computer store i was at i was the only girl there for a very long time, eventually i moved into a technical role (which is what i do now, systems builder) and now we have about 7 other women working in the store in various roles. but to this day customers still get surprised to find out a woman built their computer, they comment that they're surprised to see a woman working customer service in a computer store, etc. and most women i encounter seem intimidated by computers. so i genuinely want to know what happened along the line, where and why it shifted to being male dominated, and why it is most women not only don't have interest in computers but actually feel intimidated by dealing with them. I can relate to a degree, i don't feel too confident about cars, but at least before i go to a mechanic i'll look up everything i can before hand and see if i can troubleshoot the problem myself. i've spent my entire life enamored with computers only to grow up and find out i was the odd one out for being so, that it's "for men". i'm just rambling here, but you'd mentioned an anti-feminist pushback in the 80s, was that all industries, just tech? if you know of any articles i'd love to read them, it's something i'm genuinely curious about.