<p>I never said that girls have lower test scores. I know theirs are usually higher and they are more involved in school activities and have a greater number of valedictorians and saludatorians. I think you missed my main point. Just because all that is true doesn’t mean that they apply to engineering. It is vastly the opposite. I love girls that can deal with numbers and science but the number that can as opposed to the number that actually want to (for fear of being the breadwinner, too smart for guys, considered nerdy, spend prime years of life doing problem sets, I’m not making stereotypes but this is a conscious descision that is far more prevalent in accomplished women than their male counterparts) is a much higher ratio than guys who can deal with those things and those that actually want to.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that is women’s place at all. Recent studies prove that many women still hold these values of a housewife/home-maker higher than that of their careers (<a href=“http://alternet.org/story/28621/)%5B/url%5D”>http://alternet.org/story/28621/)</a>. So this would largely translate to a career like engineering which is seen as male-dominated and not even the good type of males. Also many girls have finding a husband in mind (front or back) or even husband material when they go to college more often than guys finding a wife. I know many more girls upset about being single more than guys. So factoring that into a descision about a major that will take up a lot of that time that can be spent with a boyfriend or having fun (latter applies to both genders) is limited more than say, an English major.</p>
<p>Also I want to point out a couple things to tomboy, Olin is a specialized college of math, science, engineering/technollogy, am I right? The girls applying there definitely have their minds set on academics and technology type things. At U of I or the topic title UPenn, there are a lot more options available which means there is a lot more different types of people and different types of majors. Which also means there is a lot more temptation to switch out of engineering once you see how much fun others are having or how hard your major is compared to others that you might like more and know they are easier (again this applies to both genders, but they are already uneven so if the major drops the same amount of girls & guys, it becomes even more disproportionate). So at a large Public University there may be different obstacles than being at a specialized technologically-aligned smaller school. So comparing that to the situation we’re talking about isn’t the best comparison.</p>
<p>Also your article may even prove a point. Although universities may let women in with lower scores (keep in mind that they applied to engineering b/c they wanted to [the right reasons] as opposed to guys who applied because they could [wrong reasons]) they often end up doing better than the men (those that stay) because they will work harder and care more. How many times have you seen a guy freaking out or crying over a grade? Not often. Women care more, I know this because of the girls in my class. Overall they care more and probably do better. The foreign students. Mostly female. This will often lead to better scores even with the same amount of intelligence.</p>
<p>Alright I think the genders are equal in all areas of study just to throw that out there but if what your saying is true about higher scores than why aren’t many women researching out there? Why don’t I have more women professors? I’m not being sexist at all with these questions. My point: Girls often want to do other things with their time than go to school forever and become academic more often than guys. It’s true. Girls want to settle down sooner and more often than guys. Girls are often more affected by settling down in the workforce than guys. These aren’t sexist statements. At all. I think women are highly capable of being just as good in the academic world as men but it is up to them to prove that they can do that. For those like Aries and tomboy that are. More power to you.</p>
<p>So my point is that as long as there are different motives for different genders, regardless of test scores, there will be an inequality among the ratio of males and females which is why engineering programs at public universities recruit females the same way they would recruit an under-represented minority.</p>