What this hot take misses is at uni, women aren't really less likely to take math classes than men; the massacre is at grad school apps.
David Atkins @DavidOAtkins
8 Mar 2018
Replying to @DavidOAtkins
Basically, boys are worse students than girls. Boys' language skills are worse than girls, so boys pursue STEM. The problem isn't that don't force enough women into STEM, but that we massively overvalue STEM work compared to language/social work. It's affirmative action for men.
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Replying to @alon_levy
My experience doesn't match that; at Harvard (class of 2002) the student body was I think 52% male, and Physics and Computer Science classes were around 90% male or more (some 100% I think). Has that changed in the years since?

Mar 9, 2018 · 1:13 AM UTC

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Replying to @davidbaron
No idea about Harvard physics or CS. I know at Harvard math there's a lot of tracking, with women discouraged from taking Math 55.
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There was a period when Math 25 and 55 started out together and then split a few weeks in. Not sure if that helped or hurt. (I could have taken 25 or maybe 55 but self-selected out into the now-nonexistent Math 22.)
Replying to @davidbaron @alon_levy
That’s exactly like what the split was at Carnegie Mellon when I was there. The University was certainly not looking for a gender disparity like that, but that was who applied and the classes they chose.