My Fabulous Geek Career (O'ReillyNet)

My Fabulous Geek Career (O'ReillyNet)

This is an interesting article where theoretical physicist
Howard Georgi proposes that the qualities that actually get selected
for in the hard sciences' cultures -- assertiveness and
single-mindedness -- do tend to exclude women (since those
traits are often socially punished in women), but are not
necessarily the qualities that make for good science:

http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200001/back-page.cfm

It might be a similar story for women on Free Software.