This was tried back in the mid-nineties during the dotcom boom. I went to engineering school back then and there was a big push to get young women interested in engineering at the high school level. They did a good job herding the gals into the engineering schools, but they hit what’s called “The Physics Barrier” and dropped out into other kinder, gentler degree programs.
my 20 yo tall blonde pretty niece is a junior in the honors program at the U of Akron in mechanical engineering. She has had co-op jobs with GE for the last two summers and will be co-oping with Proctor and Gamble this summer. she’s extremely bright. She must have surmounted the Physics barrier.
Actually from my personal observation a lot of the women who dropped out of engineering degrees, especially computer science, could do the math. What they couldn’t do was see a way to have a career in the field and a family. In comp sci if you let your resume get five years out of date, that’s it, you’re done. Taking time off for a kid can be career killing. Or even downgrading to fewer hours is tough. This is an industry where 60 hour weeks are not uncommon. It’s hard to do that and be a mom and contrary to what feminists say, most twenty something college educated women do want kids.
It’s hard to look at all the hard work you’re doing and say “I guess this is going down the toilet in five years”. It’s discouraging.