First, I think any female is capable of learning in the same methods as taught to males. Having taken engineering, a long time ago, I can support knute on some of the profs treating us differently. Though some didn't. I remember a prof singling me out and pushed me towards grad work in physics.

It is all individual. I am as much as a problem solver as my engineering brother and look at everyday solutions, since I have heard him say things I was thinking. But that is how my engineering father brought us up. I think too often, habits are just a factor of the parental influence and their attitude and for so long, girls were "not good in math and science" though we were expected to cook well...without being good at chemistry.