Chess has a similar problem. Girls may show promise in chess, but when they see that chess club is 3/4 male, or more, they tend to drop out, especially at older ages. You see younger girls try it, but they don't stay in.
With this said, there is also research showing that moms talk to male toddlers more about math and numbers, and they also give them more blocks and building toys. These early experiences have been shown to matter.
What I don't particularly care for is all of the diatribe that purports to show that this coincidence is correlation indicating some sort of sinister male plot against females.
It is the mummies who choose to start the ball rolling on this and then later the majority female elementary school teachers that push the boys forward. Later, the young girls pick up on these patterns and actively engage in peer pressure to keep the 'sisterhood' pretty and dumb long before puberty and competitive sexual selection kicks in.
I see the pain that my daughter goes through - it is the girls that exclude her because she has the temerity to have some brains.
I have always encouraged my DD to think for herself and to see Maths as just puzzles that can give deeper insight into the world around you- Fibonacci tree branching etc. At 6 and a half she told ME that 3^2 + 4^2 == 5^2 and that it is funny how numbers work out like that sometimes after we had been discussion g squares. She is no child prodigy but she does have a solid grasp of the Maths that she has seen so far. I want her to stay learning and boy can she learn fast when not distracted, hungry or tired!
I am a humanist at heart and certainly not a feminist - not after trying the read some of the more extreme excrement masquerading as scholarship from that movement, 'movement' being the operative word here (literally) in the Eighties, la Andrea Dworkin et al. I do have a lot of time for Camille Paglia, though. Now there is an admirably sharp mind that tells it how she sees it.
