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Re:Why are boys academically underperforming? [audio] by andi999 on Thursday December 31, 2020 @12:35PM (#25594823)
I attended the opening ceremony of the international physics Olympics, and it was interesting to see the gender distribution of the teams. Most western countries had 0-1 female in a team of 5. Countries traditionally perceived as less gender equal had more. I remember Kuwait having an all girls team.
Re:Why are boys academically underperforming? [audio] by mjh2539 on Thursday December 31, 2020 @12:56PM (#25595097)
Someone did a study on this recently. Women in the developing world are much more likely to study STEM than in the developed world. There was speculation as to why.
Re:Why are boys academically underperforming? [audio] by Latour on Thursday December 31, 2020 @02:08PM (#25595951)
I'm pretty sure the consensus is that in the developing world, STEM education is considered a more viable path to financial independence [1].

1: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/the-more...

Re:Why are boys academically underperforming? [audio] by analog31 on Thursday December 31, 2020 @12:57PM (#25595107)
Anecdote: The two women whom I'm closest to (my spouse and my mom) both went into science because they were encouraged to do so by the nuns at the Catholic high schools that they attended.

One possible explanation is that the social expectation of becoming a wife and mother is decoupled from the choice of what they study in school.