About a year ago I took a Sociology class at Brigham Young University. The main topic in that class was inequality and for a week we discussed gender inequality. Someone brought up the point that there are majors at school where the majority of the students are females and there are other majors where there are almost no females. The professor gave a few ideas, while the discussion leaned towards The Family: A Proclamation to the World. He asked the ladies in the class to give their opinion. Most of them, if not all, were Mormons. Most of them agreed that the reason they chose to study Nursing, Family Science or similar majors was because those majors would help them to better prepare to be mothers. Another reason is that they would be able to work while their children would be at school. They gave other reasons, but their answers focused on the fact that their priority was motherhood. This might be a good reason why many women don't go into Mathematics and Science majors. While this may be a credible reason for LDS girls, it may not necessarily apply non-LDS girls, so what of them? It might be true that our society discourages women to go into science and Math. It might even be true that even if women pursue science or math, they can be pushed into traditional female roles. Is this a bad thing? It can be if it is the solely reason why women don't go into these majors; if they conform to the sexist views of society that scientists and computer nerds are only males.
