Myth: From the time they start school, most girls are less interested in science than boys are.

Reality: In elementary school about as many girls as boys have positive attitudes toward science. A recent study of fourth graders showed that 66 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys reported liking science. But something else starts happening in elementary school. By second grade, when students (both boys and girls) are asked to draw a scientist, most portray a white male in a lab coat. The drawings generally show an isolated person with a beaker or test tube. Any woman scientist they draw looks severe and not very happy. The persistence of the stereotypes start to turn girls off, and by eighth grade, boys are twice as interested in STEM careers as girls are. The female attrition continues throughout high school, college, and even the work force. Women with STEM higher education degrees are twice as likely to leave a scientific or engineering job as men with comparable STEM degrees.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109939

More than any other generation before them, today’s teenagers are comfortable with rapid technological change. There is no longer a gender gap in who uses technology, thanks especially to the Internet. However, girls and women are still less likely to participate in the creation of technology. To keep pace with the rapid changes in information technology, it is no longer sufficient for a person to be computer literate; people must become fluent with information technology (per the National Research Council). Fluency includes literacy skills, but it also includes a conceptual knowledge about when and how to use information technology, and the capacity to apply that knowledge to the new situations and to manage the inevitable problems that occur when new approaches are introduced.
JILL DENNER

“Research on gender differences in students’ math and science achievement and motivation received considerable attention in the 1980s, and recent years have seen a resurgence in interest, possibly because of increasing concerns about the shortage of students, especially women, entering technical, engineering, and other such fields.”
Cavanagh, S. (2007) When It comes to math and science, mom and dad count: Parent attitudes influence how their offspring take to those subjects. Education Week. Vol. 27, Issue 09, Page 8.

“While both boys and girls tend to lose interest in math and science as they move from elementary to high school, females’ interest and confidence falls off more sharply, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education.”
Cavanagh, S. (2007) When It comes to math and science, mom and dad count: Parent attitudes influence how their offspring take to those subjects. Education Week. Vol. 27, Issue 09, Page 8.