Your argument about gender inequality is hand wavy and unsubstantiated. But I'm not an economist, so maybe you can torture 60 years of cultural, economic and social change into a counterpoint to the last 40 years of software engineering employment facing massive change in less than 10 years--if we had the time and the inclination (a PHD in economics?).

Ideologically, I'm speaking from personal experience. When your career is disrupted by technology, power is the first thing to go. You don't have any of it, and nothing you can do will bring it back. You have to bust a move, pivot, or something.

But don't take my word for it, Cory Doctorow has wrote a book and is on a lecture tour about it. He's not an economist, but does distill the complexity of modern culture and technology into compelling stories. A bit like Mark Twain.

"All this means that blue collar workers are the pioneering early adopters of the bossware that will shortly be tormenting their white-collar colleagues elsewhere in the business." (https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2025-03-13...)

He's also used his experience as a writer supporting the Hollywood writers strike to comment directly about software engineers. Not long ago engineers had massive power in the workforce. Their labor cost was like a 10x for their employers revenue. But SWE failed to use that power for collective organization when they had that power, and now it's too late. Though, the best time to organize was 10 years ago. The second best time is now.