I share aquinas' confusion, nicoledad, and your recent response hasn't cleared it up. Certainly nobody is forcing my DD's interests in STEM, but with enough of the usual social pressures, it wouldn't be hard to force her out.

We're talking about interesting, good-paying jobs, and in an economy where automation is forcing a lot of other people out of work, being in the business of automation seems like a pretty smart bet. There are more jobs than we have qualified people to fill them, so there's a labor supply crisis. And we know that women are self-selecting out of these careers in shocking numbers, so it seems pretty obvious where we could go to alleviate that shortage.

In short - why should we not be encouraging both boys and girls (and boys are already getting TONS of encouragement) to consider these careers?