Originally Posted by chay
"Women are always less likely to choose a STEM program, regardless of mathematical ability. Among those who went to university, 23% women in the three highest categories of PISA scores (out of six) chose a STEM program, compared with 39% of men in the three lowest categories of PISA scores."

It makes me think about WHY they might be "choosing" other fields. If it is truly because they are not interested and that is based on a somewhat educated view of what it actually is then I'm fine. If it is because they feel like they aren't "smart enough" then I think they need to take their queue from the 39% of men referenced in the quote and just go for it.

https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2013001/article/11874-eng.htm
Since women's relative strength is verbal compared to mathematical ability, for a given level of mathematical ability, a woman is likely to have more verbal ability than a man and thus to choose a humanities major where verbal ability is more important. In other words, women who are very good at math are more likely than men who are very good at math to also be very good at other subjects and therefore to have choices other than STEM.