I haven't read this whole thread, but it just occurred to me that the reason girls are overlooked may not only be because of those lovely long fuses and social skills.
It actually may be a kind of Internalized Sexism (The kind of Sexism that gets passed down from Adult Female to Young Female to 'prepare them to cope' with the most 'over the top' regular sexism)
Nowadays there are more opportunities than ever for females in the US, but all the old expectations ((Be Nice)) are still in full force. Of course, being nice is a generally good thing to be - but...I laugh at the TV sitcoms that show nakedly ambitious women, and I think I'm laughing at the comic version of poor social skills, but what am I really laughing at?
Sometimes when I hear the 'hot button' kind of 'who do these parents think that they are?' energy, I'll bet I would be better able to diffuse it if I remembered that all the Adult Female Teachers were once young girls, who were taught to hide their best abilities so that they could fit into the narrow box labeled 'correctly successful.'
Just a thought,
Grinity
