Hi Patrick,
Thanks for your post. The transition to secondary and subject choices is certainly an area in which gender imbalances (often due to stereotyping) occur. Indeed, it goes beyond these subjects – less than 20% of the student population in Leaving Cert physics and chemistry is female. The PDST and UCD have had a collaboration called ‘EDI’ to encourage more diversity in STEM subjects. Furthermore, work is also being done on a ‘Women in STEM’ initiative to rectify this. I love ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ – a couple of other picture books have been listed above for exploring this topic.