What’s puzzling is that the rate of women leaving profession software engineering is higher than in law and medical fields. The leave rate of women from software development can’t be adequately explained by it being a taxing field; it isn’t more taxing than law or medicine. There isn’t yet a satisfying explanation for why women leave software engineering. Open source software (OSS), in spite of the lack of women, is a good place to hone ones’ skills and keep skills sharp and relevant even if one doesn’t want to work full time at a software company.