<p>I am a stereotypical Asian FOB who tried to teach (and brainwash) all three math/sci/engg from before the time they were in elementary school. Obviously given the sample size, the evidence is very anecdotal, but I felt a very significant factor was peer-influence. Our chess club had about the same number of male and female 3rd graders where the decision to attend was driven more by the parents, but the ratio was 1 to 5 among high schoolers simply because by then they could choose to attend whatever they wanted, and there weren’t too many females to socialize with. </p>
<p>I felt there was a similar but less pronounced influence re math - a lot more female contemporaries of my daughters wanted to go to med school than engg school, and the themes of many of the academic contests they attended diverged - DS preferring math, comp sci, and engg while the girls went for biological areas. I told them that if they didn’t wan’t to take AP Calc, that was OK not so much because I felt there were too weak for it, but I felt their time was better spent elsewhere. </p>
<p>Can’t comment on OP’s original topic other than saying perhaps the parents’ interest in the areas in question may be a factor. When my kids said they heard AP European history had quite a reputation at their HS and they questioned whether they should skip it, I was more than happy to tell them to spend time on what we all felt was more useful, and just take fluff courses in art, history, and such.</p>