We all know that women are a minority in software development. This bothers us because it's not consistent with how we view the development world. In the ideal profession that exists in our minds:

• All coders have an equal opportunity to be hired – all that matters is the quality of their work.

• Once on the job, developers are treated fairly regardless of gender, race, and other factors – all that matters is the quality of their work.

• Compensation and advancement are awarded fairly in proportion to developers' contributions – all that matters is the quality of their work.

In other words, we view the world of software development as an open meritocracy.

The truth is more complicated. White men are hired disproportionately over other candidates with equal qualifications. Women programmers are widely subjected to discrimination and hostile work environments. And women are under-compensated and under-promoted compared to equally qualified men. We don't want to believe these things, but study after study confirms them. These are the facts.

According to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up 58 percent of the workforce, but only 25 percent of the computing workforce. Between 2000 and 2009, the the percentage of women in the computing workforce dropped 13 percent, while the percentage of men in computing increased 11 percent.

A study by the London Business School revealed that software development teams are most innovative and efficient when they are composed of 50 percent men and 50 percent women. Any other ratio yields lower innovation and lower efficiency. Yet women remain under-represented.

Most of us are uncomfortable with these truths. We'd like to alter the reality to make it conform with our ideals.

Initiatives to open our field to full participation by women have largely been of two kinds.

Some address the “pipeline problem.” The idea is that women are under-represented in high-tech careers because our colleges and universities prepare too few qualified female candidates. Proposed solutions to the pipeline problem can be very inventive. Some activists start with research showing that boys and girls accept gender roles as toddlers, and advocate a wholesale revolution in the way society regards femininity. More commonly, activists attack the pipeline problem by creating incentives for young women to choose technical majors in college.

The second major focus has been networking. Women in tech have formed myriad organizations to provide information and support to other women. These peer-support organizations have attracted high-profile advocates, women who have beaten the odds and ascended to executive positions in high-tech firms.

Neither of these approaches can eliminate the systematic exclusion of women from an equal role in software development. To welcome women into our field – and make our teams more innovative and efficient as a happy result – we must start by accepting the truth about the barriers that currently exist. Then we must change the world. By changing ourselves.

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J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. He woke up unaccountably happy this morning. Don't you love it when that happens?