Media and gender activists ignore the fact that female students don't choose STEM fields for the same reasons they didn't

This past weekend, unsold copies of the “weekend” edition of USA Today lamented the existence of what it called “Testosterone Valley,” where males dominated the computer and software-creation business. Where were all the women? Surely this must be “evidence” that women are shunted out or “discouraged” from participating. It is part the alleged “confidence gap.”

Frankly, I don’t think there is any shortage of “confidence” displayed by the female of the species. Far from it. Female students form a numerical majority in colleges and universities, and this only seems to be growing. They earn more degrees than men. We are told by the gender activists and the media that women are “smarter” than men, and that they are just as good or better in mathematics. So, if this is true, there should be no real barrier of women muscling in on so-called “male preserves” like the STEM fields; all they have to do to change the alleged “cultural barrier” is simply enter those fields of study. Simple as that. No excuses necessary.

But female college students are not doing that. They dominate by at least a 2-1 margin in following majors: Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences; Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies, Humanities; English Language and Literature/Letters; Communication and Communication Technologies; Visual and Performing Arts; Psychology and Education.

So what does that tell us? Women (in general) don’t care for majors that deal in hands on nuts and bolts, but those that are “glamorous,” have the potential for personal self-aggrandizement and fame, or provide touchy-feely human contact (insofar as it provides an opportunity to condescend over the weak and in need). Of course, to be honest, almost every college student—male or female—has this superstar-in-their-own-mind mentality. But rarely does the vision they have of themselves come to fruition.

We need not question or make-up excuses for why students choose the majors that they do. Women are a small percentage of “Silicon Valley” because fewer of them seek the educational requirements to begin with. It is unfair to bash males over the head with this, or try to artificially create a false “balance” that only harms this country’s competitiveness. No one should force females into the STEM fields just to make a political point. If those in the media and activist groups don’t want to look like hypocrites, then they should have gone into those fields themselves. That they chose to fields that provided the best opportunity to boost their inflated egos should explain the reality more than anything else.