There is clear evidence that, starting in high school, young women each year lose interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, relative to young men, and this makes it difficult at the university level for us to have equivalent numbers in our programs. There certainly could be substantially more encouragement for young women to retain their interest, and I know that direct interventions such as women role models coming into the classrooms, and also women mentors connected to young women in high school, women who are engineers themselves, who are business leaders themselves, help young women to get the message that they can do it, that the boys are not smarter than the girls, that this is not too hard for girls, that they are able to do this, and if they are interested, they should pursue it.
There is documented evidence that these kinds of personal connections help to retain the interest of young women. There needs to be more encouragement in that area.