Women with talents in the sciences wont be ignored simply because they are too valuable to business and society. I don't believe this is true. In general, indi

Women with talents in the sciences wont be ignored simply because they are too valuable to business and society. I don't believe this is true. In general, individuals behave irrationally all the time. Societies are even worse. There are all sorts of mechanisms by which societies make irrational decisions, but here's one example: we can't evaluate future value. A middle aged woman who has just discovered a cure for heart disease is incredibly valuable. But you'll never get that middle aged scientist if society doesn't spend expend a lot of time, money, and attention on her when she's an uninteresting 12 year old with absolutely nothing remarkable except a vague interest in chemistry. There are lots of critical decision points where society should be investing in that woman, but at almost all of those points, her visible value is very very small.