I’ve wondered the same thing, especially because many corporations and firms would love to hire female industrial designers, self included. I’m not sure we will be able to go beyond speculation here, but I’d love to have an open dialog and hear from women in design, both professional and students. Over the years I’ve had an opportunity to work with some fantastic designers who are women at Nike, Converse and at frog. In fact, when I left Converse, the majority of my team were female designers. When I’m hiring, on first pass, I only look at the work. In design, at the end of the day, only the work matters.