It is probably true that more could be done to encourage girls and women to enter the math and science fields. It certainly appeared that the old Soviet Union succeeded in making more female scientists and mathematicians. Of course, in the SU, there was coercion involved on the part of the state, and often a desire to avoid the more politically risky humanities areas on the part of the individual. Still, we could probably do more to encourage it (probably mainly by mandating courses).

But the chief problem is that our math and science education in the lower grades at this point is not good in many school systems, for boys and girls, although more boys do persist in these fields. This is why we are taking so many medical students and doctors and engineers and scientists from Second and Third World countries. Often with far less in funding, these countries are giving better education in general, and in science and math particularly, than we do.

In many American universities, graduate departments in these areas have no or few Americans. American boys are often at a disadvantage in going into advanced study in the sciences because of poor preparation. Given this situation, trying to equalize or move toward greater representation of women in the hard sciences is not only not a priority, it may do more harm than good, inasmuch as the temptation will be to water down the standards so that more women might more readily reach them.

Already we have some evidence of this. Recent studies purporting to show equal ability in math among men and women were based on watered-down tests, according to this City Journal article. The goal should be excellence, not equalizing groups.