Getting to the "% of women in the general population = % of women in the IT workforce" is an excellent goal, but any study that doesn't at least mention the percentage of women graduating with STEM degrees is really ignoring half of the problem. How many women are out there with STEM degrees who decided to work in another field or not at all? Probably not many, but if all of them were employed, would we even be close to reflecting the gender makeup of society at large? My guess is no. Companies, however well-intentioned, can't force kids to get a STEM degree, so putting the onus solely on them to get to representational parity is putting the cart before the horse.
Not to say that tech businesses/business culture are completely blameless, I'm sure many young women see dumpster fires like Uber and figures like the 15% pay disparity (the study didn't mention if it was controlled for experience, etc, but there are other well-researched studies out there saying similar things) and decide to go down a different path.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
