From the NYT:
Are Women Just ‘Choosing’ Not to Pursue Science Careers?
By Vikas Bajaj
The second editorial in our series about science and math education, which focuses on women and minorities, has sparked an impassioned debate among online commenters about the career choices women, and to a lesser extent minorities, make.
Some readers argued that we are seeing a problem where there is none. If girls are choosing not to pursue computer science or engineering careers, that simply means they are not interested in those fields and may never be no matter how much effort is put into removing gender bias and stereotypes. But other commenters — many of them women — made a forceful case that parents, teachers and employers are pushing girls away from these professions.
When I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphatic cancer in December 1996, I noticed that a substantial percentage of the doctors, researchers, and assistants working hard to save my life were women. Whether this was because society malevolently "steers" women away from mechanical engineering and into the life sciences, or whether females tend to prefer fields with living rather than inert subject matters is an interesting conundrum to debate.
But, 17 years later, I just want to say to all the people of both sexes in the life sciences who are the reason I'm still here:
Thank you.