[alephzer0]

I'm going to take a more radical, less common approach to this question. In advance I say that my opinions are mine and not Team 1257's; that being said I have a right to them, and you can agree or disagree.


It is things like this that make me wonder, "What is with people?" I mean, we're all humans right? Why should it matter at all whether we're boys or girls, or for that matter, black or white or Asian? I think that gender roles are among the most idiotic things in the existence of mankind. I think that the concept of "Cooties" and gender rivalry is immature at its finest. I think that, just like people should not be judged by the color of their skin, they should also not be judged by their X and Y chromosomes. And I think that the only place for gender differences is in the bedroom.
In other words, the only reason this is an issue is because we make it one. If children were treated the same from birth, that is, given the same toys and taught the same things, and not exposed to words like "tomboy" or "sissy" or "girlish" or "boyish", and not separated by gender, then this would not be a problem. Girls and boys should not care about what the "intended" gender of something is. In my ideal world, boys and girls alike would both watch princess movies and power rangers.
I'm not saying to force anything on anyone. They can and should be allowed to be interested in whatever it is they want. But they should be exposed to everything in an equal light. Kids aren't inherently interested in anything based on their gender. Everything they know about that is taught to them.
So if, at the earliest stages, children are integrated and gender diversity is encouraged, we won't have the underrepresentation of women in STEM. We will get as close to 50/50 as humanly possible. But as long as people nudge their boys to be boyish and their girls to be girlish, this will never get anywhere.