I agree with you, it doesn't account for the the imbalance entirely. I said it's the root of it, as in this creates the stereotypes from such a young age. I th

I agree with you, it doesn't account for the the imbalance entirely. I said it's the root of it, as in this creates the stereotypes from such a young age. I think it's a fair assessment based on the stories I hear from my friends and the kids I tutor about what made girls choose certain areas of focus compared to boys. It was even more enlightening hearing about my women friends who ended up not completing a major in stem and especially CS to graduation. I have to admit it's not a hard quantifiably scientific. I still choose to believe it. It's not going to be one little thing that will fix gender imbalances, but in my opinion, these kind of practical changes is where you see longer term positive consequences. I have a brilliant friend, finished a doctorate, nurse practitioner. We talk about our journeys and she still talks about feeling somewhat insecure that her "brain isn't made for math" and I always call her out, she finished some of the most rigorous years of schooling in healthcare and she still doesn't believe she would be good at math. I don't think she has to do math unless she happens to find interest in it, she doesn't have anything left to prove to herself or anyone else. I just feel frustrated as an educator by how rigid that kind of thinking is and how long it follows students through their life.