You're right, they are also driven by gender indoctrination that begins in early childhood as well as marginalization and harassment that often begins in the coursework needed for these fields in the first place. As I noted in the quote from my prior comment, "Female retention in engineering remains a persistent problem. Even after overcoming hurdles to enter the profession..."
"Media exerts a lot of influence in maintaining gender norms and stereotypes, beginning in childhood, and continuing throughout life. “One study we looked at found that the more TV children of both sexes watched, the more likely they were to believe that “boys are better”. For little boys, watching television appears to reinforce their already positive self-regard, while for girls, watching television appears to dampen it. This is concerning given that there are more than twice as many male characters as there are female characters on kid’s TV shows.” (2)
In a 2011 study of math gender stereotypes in American elementary school children, two findings emerged. “First, as early as second grade, the children demonstrated the American cultural stereotype that math is for boys on both implicit and explicit measures. Second, elementary school boys identified with math more strongly than did girls on both implicit and self-report measures. The findings suggest that the math-gender stereotype is acquired early and influences emerging math self-concepts prior to ages at which there are actual differences in math achievement.” (emphasis mine) (3)
Constant exposure to dated concepts of gender roles and norms in the media starts before preschool and continues from there — concepts like: Boys are smarter than girls; certain jobs are best for men and others for women; and even that girls are responsible for their own sexual assaults. This was the finding of the 2017 Common Sense Media report Watching Gender: How Stereotypes in Movies and on TV Impact Kids’ Development.
"Many STEM educators, especially teachers who have been trained in the last 10 years, know that there is a point during middle school where achievement in science for U.S. girls and boys begins to diverge (Rittmayer, 2008). Girls begin taking fewer STEM classes than boys and believe they are worse at science and math; as a result, the achievement gap in these fields starts to grow. Additionally, research has shown that girls’ interest in STEM throughout high school generally declines whereas the same is not true for boys (Sadler et al., 2012)."
As already pointed out, most people aren't aware of the high levels of harassment and violence in nursing - but they are aware of the high levels in STEM. And academic/professional tracks can't exactly be compared with hospitality. It's not like anyone asks themself, "Should I be an engineer or a waitress?"
You continually seeking ways to blame women for not being stronger, smarter, more savvy, etc., is victim-blaming dominance hierarchy thinking to the umpteenth degree. It's patriarchal to the core and it's really mean-spirited to boot. It shows a real disdain for most women that is ugly and out of alignment with what you claim to believe.
