This is so absurd. I'm sure the cultures girls are influenced by varies broadly but in my experience girls do not seem to be hearing or even believing they are inferior in academics. Its the opposite. More boys I've seen suffer from this. This was not the case when I was growing up. I think we've over-corrected culturally and its probably in the process of self correcting.

I've done software engineering for a long time now and I have watched many people learn to code and discover they just don't like it. I'm convinced that most people can do math very well. Its mostly that they don't enjoy it or they do. Of course there is a bell curve but enjoyment of a subject is a massive factor in determining if you get good at it. You have to keep doing something to get better. If you don't like it won't. Of course the learning curve factors in.

I've seen it in music as well. People who give up before they get over the hump on the piano or guitar never get to the fun stage. Those that stick with it usually do love it.

When I was getting programmed on how much of a crime it was that there wasn't equal representation in tech back in the early 2000s I talked to my wife about it. She was puzzled by it. Why does it need to be 50/50? Maybe women just don't enjoy this work? Maybe they would rather do other things? Incidentally she can code and picked it up pretty quickly but just didn't enjoy doing it herself. Of course there was/is sexism in tech. Guess what, its in every field I've worked in. Humans are humans. Flawed and unfair. Often we over-correct and don't think it through. Maybe our goals are the bigger problem.

I firmly believe we need each other. Men and women were designed to complement one another. They aren't all the same but I think we should embrace the differences rather than trying pretend they don't exist. I don't know how deep they are in the mind or brain. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me. Each person is different but patterns emerge and fighting them seems incredibly dumb to me.