To head off the "it's unfair" crap that this is sure to bring:
At my local programming group there are a few women in their early 20s. Each of them was told in their high school education, explicitly, that girls don't need to know math or logical thinking, that it was for boys.
One was part of a school system that graded girls on effort in math, and never given valuable teacher time or feedback or help, because "they will go on to the humanities anyway" and actually learning the stuff "would waste time" for the teachers. She is really interested in programming, and struggles with the college classes she's taking because the basic mathematical thinking was denied her. It isn't that she can't grasp it - the other day when started going over code exercises, she just needed some explaining and practice on variables because her algebra teacher didn't care to go over it with her. Her programming teacher doesn't want to "coddle" her. But with a bit of explanation and basic concepts review, she grasped it just fine, and deduced implications on her own. You know - getting it.
What the heck does this have to do with anything, blah blah unfair I predict you whining. Well, it's this -
If someone is denied the chance to do something, and the system she is part of is the reason for denial, then perhaps a good response is to provide the opportunity by other means. Boys aren't being denied. In fact they were explicitly getting something extra as a result of being the girls being denied.
So we give the girls the same thing. We don't give it to the boys, they would then be given extra, and not the same chance. That is why this sort of thing is needed.
Oh, BTW all of the women I am referring to are from Illinois, some in more rural parts, some in Chicago.
And yes, we need to fix the system that does this to prevent future occurrences. At the same time, let's provide these girls who are being denied a chance as well, instead of writing them off.