Today , if you only started learning computer science stuff at csc 101 , you started 10 years behind your peers and have a huge handicap , That was my experience I didn ' t learn to program until college . When high schools still don ' t widely include computer science in the curriculum , you ' re going to see plenty of young people entering college without really knowing what programming is about . I grew up playing with Legos though , and had a computer in high school . There ' s still a gap to bridge in being exposed to programming . So the actual question is why boys tended to be drawn to tinkering play such as techniclego . For young people , having a computer to tinker with at home and getting the introduction to the subject depends heavily on SES and parenting . And even if it ' s not a computer , the decision by a parent to get a child a tinkertype toy depends on a lot of social factors . Boys can be drawn to tinkering , but they can also be introduced to and encouraged in that type of play , hobby , etc . Are girls given equal opportunity there ? It ' s hard for a kid to tinker if their parents don ' t support them . Gender studies students say the graph is because home computers were marketed to boys , but this is a proxy reason to support the gender studies ideology . Above you acknowledged that social conditioning could play a role isn ' t gendered marketing an attempt to influence and shape the social conditioning done by parents ? I ' ve spent a disgusting amount of time on Youtube watching compilations of commercials from the 90 s and some from the 80 s , and while I saw some examples of genderneutral advertising the Legos and sciencethemed toys were generally marketed to boys . I ' ve taught young women to code and have been involved in what you might call STEM Outreach , and one major concern is that parents may not understand the value and importance of coding . Add to that attitudes about what toys girls and boys should play with and what careers they should pursue , and you ' ve got a ton of factors to control for before you can consider child psychology .