Hypatia's father was a mathematician who supported her in her endeavours; many Greek fathers wouldn't have. Hedy Lamarr likely might have been a far greater engineer and inventor had she not been born a few decades later; she was self-taught. Imagine what she might have become had she been formally trained. When she tried to sell her 'spread spectrum technology' invention to the Navy after WWII, she was told she'd be more valuable selling 'kisses and war bonds'. Know you place, little girl!

There were women who wanted to go up into space in the 20th century; they were, as aviators, as accomplished as any man, but NASA and the military always found excuses to not send them even though they came close a few times. Somewhere deep inside the myriad excuses they offered was the one they couldn't admit to themselves, except occasionally to each other: Male astronauts were the new heroes, but if even a *girl* can go up into space, it can't be that hard.

I believe STEM can be more sex-integrated than it is if we remove the barriers for women, including just being more overall supportive of girls who show a knack for STEM skills and talents. I'm not sure it will ever achieve a 50/50 parity. I don't care as long as every woman (or POC)'s talents are being used, along with every white/male's, to the best of their ability.