The argument is: a. Since there are not many women in these professions, young girls and women don't aspire to them. b. A decent amount of women enter the STE

The argument is: a. Since there are not many women in these professions, young girls and women don't aspire to them. b. A decent amount of women enter the STEM fields but fall out of them because they feel unwelcome, discriminated against, etc. c. The discouragement starts early too. Our culture is very gendered and girls get pushed towards pink and fashion and boys towards soldiers and tech in general. Here are some examples of things that make women feel unwelcome. It's pretty depressing. http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_incidents I don't disagree with you re: the current STEM ratios and I do think it's a hot button issue because tech fields are lucrative (and of course because articles that piss people off get more clicks). You don't see women complaining about the construction, trucker, fisherperson, etc. jobs that are predominantly male nor do they ask for more men in nursing and education to have more gender balance there. So tl;dr: fix the STEM pipeline starting at age 6 or so and treat the women that are here with some common decency.