What needs to change to make software engineering a more diverse and inclusive field?

I think that one thing that we can do is take the problem down to a much more manageable scope. Rather than trying to fix the entire field of software engineering, ask how we can make our software engineering teams more diverse and inclusive.

What does it mean to be diverse? A very useful tool is the wheel of privilege and power (https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/documents/pdf/english/corporate/anti-racism/wheel-privilege-power.pdf). Regardless of your personal feelings on this topic as a leader, software engineering teams develop solutions for people who have diverse needs. The wheel of privilege and power gives you and your team a way to think about that.

Look at your team. Does your team include broad representation? If not, why not? Look at recruiting and staff development practices. A weird thing happens when one of your recruiting aims is to build a diverse team, and you start measuring it - you become more willing to go in search of diverse talent. I've done it several times, and have built highly engaged teams that delivered outstanding results.

No more "boil the ocean" excuses. You can start in your team with your next hire.

It needs to start at home and in the schools. More people need to learn about the opportunities at a younger age and parents and teachers need to encourage all young people to explore and consider going into STEM.

As employers we need to have outreach programs into grammar schools to encourage learning science skills.

If you don’t start at the beginning of the pipeline you have almost no chance of changing what exits the pipeline. Encourage STEM in grammar schools