The programming talent myth

Furthermore... In the U.S., today, membership in the "middle class" starts, in the cheapest housing areas, at something around $120k/yr. "Average programmer salaries" ("exempt", recall, from the right to overtime for those 60-hour weeks demanded of us), however well you think they compare to the average wage, clock in, as you note, well below that.

The overwhelming majority of programmers cannot even be said to be middle-class. What is called low enrollment of women in software training reflects a very pragmatic recognition of realistic prospects. The anomaly is weirdly high enrollment by white males, pursuing a myth slightly different from the one suggested.