IMO, the "tracking" of girls starts early and runs their entire lives. When DD (then 8) tested for one of the gifted programs the testing proctor told her, before the test, "you'll do fine on the reading test, but girls have trouble with the math" My DH, who was there, was shocked. Fortunately, DD and I had talked several times prior to that incident about how you can tell when someone is really ignorant because they will use sentences with the phrases "girls can't" or "girls don't" or "boys can't" or "boys don't" and she was then allowed to completely ignore whatever they said next as being their own misguided opinion. Yup, had the sexism talk with my 3 year old. Then again and again with new and expanded topics as she has grown.
Having to do some deep breathing. The incident, among others my mathy girl has endured, still makes me wish I could breath fire and fly (think raging dragon mom).
Anyway.
Research does support you Dude, the bias is early and impactful. See the original study here:
On The Origins of Gender Human Capital Gaps: Short and Long Term Consequences of Teachers' Stereotypical Biases
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20909or the NYTimes opEd here with additional links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/u...rom-math-and-science.html?abt=0002&abg=1
