There is a great deal of handwringing from business leaders, tech moguls, politicians and various pundits on the lack of women programmers and the dire consequences as a result.

As a result, along with their own atrocious diversity showing, Google just announced they will offer vouchers to women and minorities who want to learn to code.

Gregg Pollack, CEO of the Code School, Google is paying for three free months for any women and minorities interested in tech to expand their skills.

But knowing how doesn’t translate into wanting to do something.

And there are hundreds, if not thousands, of techie women, whether from startups, large enterprise or corporate IT, who have changed careers.

Why?

Simple. People get tired of going where they aren’t wanted.

There’s been a great deal of media ink recently documenting just how uninviting the tech culture is to women.

But if you aren’t up on the subject read the story of why the female co-founder of Tinder is suing for extreme sexual harassment (with plenty of proof).

At one point, at a company party, Mateen [Wolfe’s boss, hired after her] allegedly called Wolfe [Tinder co-founder] a “gold digger,” a “disease” and “disgusting”—in front of other people, including Sean Rad [Tinder CEO]. When Wolfe headed for the exit, a guest of Rad’s went after her and spit in her face. (…)

Mateen stripped Wolfe of her co-founder status, arguing that “Facebook and Snapchat don’t have girl founders, it just makes it look like Tinder was some accident.” The company had already been absenting Wolfe from the co-founder team when they spoke with traditional business publications like Forbes.

Read the article and the next time you hear “girls don’t like math/computers” mention that they may not like the atmosphere in which they would be forced to work.

And, cynical as it may sound, it’s not going to change any time soon.

After all, the worst examples are being inflicted by (supposedly) more enlightened Millennials as opposed to their big brothers.

Although the big brothers are nothing to write home about, as witnessed by 45 year-old Dov Charney’s actions that got him fired.

While it wasn’t his reprehensible actions, which have been ongoing for years, but rather that American Apparel’s financial performance is down.

If performance wasn’t down Charney would probably still be CEO and those same actions would be considered “eccentric,” instead of inexcusable.

Flickr image credit: jseliger2

Want to empower your team (spouse, kids, friends, others)?

Try channeling billionaire Marc Benioff, cofounder and CEO of Salesforce.com.

When someone shares a problem, skip the advice.

Ask leading questions instead.

The kinds that help the person think through the effects, reactions and repercussions of proposed actions/solutions.

Questions that don’t include what/why/when/how you would do whatever.

The secret isn’t the questions, it’s the fact that Benioff isn’t directing the answers, isn’t even interested in having an opinion and getting his way. He’s also not interested in solving the problem for his employee.

Leading questions sans ego help clarify both the question and the answer.

Amazing how empowering interaction with an authority figure can be when that person gets off their dignity and doesn’t need to vest their own ego in the solution.

Flickr image credit: Rich Anderson