Imagine knowing from an early age that you are different somehow, but can't understand how - or worse, you do know, but can't get anyone else to believe you. Imagine feeling that something is wrong with you, that the person you seem to be on the outside isn't who you are on the inside, and that everything and everyone around tells you that these feelings are wrong, bad, or worse, just plain ridiculous. Imagine coming to hate the body you feel trapped inside of, a body that you know has to be changed or it will drive you insane. Imagine you aren't sure how you can change it, or if changing it will really help, but still knowing that it is Just Plain Wrong the way it is now.
That apparently reflects the experiences of an awful lot of people in the IT field.
Anecdotally, it has long been said that there seemed to be an unusual number of gender-variant people in the computer industry - whether transgendered, androgyne, genderqueer, gender-fluid, or even just genderless. Several prominent programmers and computer scientists such as Dani Berry, Jamie Fenton, Lynn Conway, Mary Ann Horton, Sophie Wilson and Alexia Masselin are or were transsexual women, far more than one would expect.
There may be more to it than just gossip. A recent survey of the computer field indicates that as many as 2% of all people in the IT industry are gender-variant or gender-dysphoric in some way or another. To put this in perspective, the generally cited figure for the populations of the US and Europe at large is between 0.05% and 0.2%, which means that the computer industry is running at at least ten times the average. This is statistically significant, to say the least.
The question becomes, is there a real correlation, and if so, what could be the reason behind it?
Any opinions?