Where have all the women gone?

I've often wondered why there seem to be so few women that graduate from the Computer Science program in our university. Of course, there are so few that even start in the program, but even fewer that finish. While I'm sure many men don't finish as well, the numbers are not as obvious.

One temptation is to use some variation of the "girls play with dolls, boys play with trucks" argument. I think this really does have some universal application but I'm hesitant to say how far-reaching. Just because there are stereotypes or general inclinations doesn't mean we should follow them. I've met enough girls who are great with logic, math, computers and have what it takes to "do all things computer science." Working in my last job, I was so happy that there were such great women on our teams who brought amazing perspectives and balance that would have otherwise been severely lacking.

The way I see it, many women may shy away from being in an environment that I often don't enjoy myself. We should spend more time on the concepts and on the logic. Some candidates on which to spend less time? Talking about favorite Linux distros. Bashing/praising Microsoft/Apple/Linux. Casually mentioning that vi is NP-complete.

I think the reason that the major is so unbalanced is that the number of male nerds in one room has reached critical mass, which causes a chain reaction making the room unsuitable for normal human life. In a situation where women are already swimming upstream, we're filling the stream with quirkiness and geekiness and social awkwardness that really isn't necessary. Let's take it back to basics and change the classroom back into a place that fosters normal human interaction and learning.