Girls all over America may finally have substantial evidence to support the age-old claim "girls rule and boys drool." According to a recent study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, high school females are outperforming males in the classroom and on standardized tests. This trend of achievement is continuing at the undergraduate level, where more females than males are recieving degrees.

Although universities may be graduating more females, women are still underrepresented in graduate programs involving the sciences. In 2002, only 24 percent of all master's in engineering degrees and only 14 percent of doctoral engineering degrees were granted to women. In order to utilize what appears to be the latent potential of these achieving female students, the University would be wise to focus on the dispersion of females through out the sciences at the undergraduate level. If high school females are performing better than males in quantitatively rigorous fields, potential obstacles to their achievement in these areas must be examined.

Perhaps the largest hurdle these females face is the lack of female peer mentorship. This is a problem that is in many ways self-perpetuating, as lower levels of female enrollment lead to an acute lack of encouragement for other potential applicants. It seems an endless cycle that programs such as Woman in Science and Engineering Program and the Society of Woman Engineers are working to correct. But these programs work primarily to improve the gender ratio in the College of Engineering, and thus far there haven't been effective measures taken by the University to move females enrolled in LSA toward the sciences.

The University has hired new female instructors to encourage female mentorship among faculty members and students. While this attempt is a valid effort in the proliferation of females to various majors within the sciences, the majority of new faculty members were lumped into clinical departments in the School of Medicine. Departments within the College of Engineering hired seven faculty out the 43 new members. Hiring this group of female faculty does improve the ratio of female mentorship; however, more can be done to improve the prospects of female science students.

By leading more females into areas of study that promote, and often require graduate work, this gap will potentially be eliminated. Females, who offer much potential to the sciences, should be further encouraged by the University to demolish the stereotype that the strengths of women lie only in the humanities.