In the United States, equal opportunity is considered a core value, and politicians tout the triumphs of numerous women's equality movements. So why is there still such a deficit of women in tech industries? According to researcher Amanda L. Griffith, only 21 percent of women who enter college intend to major in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field, and few of these women actually earn a bachelor's degree in a STEM field (915 ). While young women are not explicitly discouraged from pursuing these careers – as evidenced by the presence of women at the Missouri University of Science and Technology – they are continually bombarded with both subliminal and direct messages that discourage women from entering technical fields. Women who decide to go against society do so at their own risk: they become, in the eyes of the world, masculine. Archaic gender roles still dictate, to some extent, to young women what is expected of them and what they can achieve. Until these conventional ideas are overcome, young women – no matter how confident – ​​will continue to fight against the status quo. Numerous academic studies have cited the continued underrepresentation of women in science and technology. In a 30-year study for the journal Intelligence, Jonathan Wai et al. cite that despite the perception that achievement in science and math is relatively equal between the sexes, males still tend to score better on standardized tests – both SAT and ACT – than females. His study cites that “[t]he male-to-female ratio in the top 0.01% of math proficiency on the SAT-M rapidly declined from 13.5 to 1 in the early 1980s to about 4 to 1 all 'early 1990s' (417). He goes on to explain that the 4 to 1 ratio achieved in... half the paper... what matters?" Review of the Economics of Education. 29. (2010): 911-922. Print. Jacoby, Susan. "When the Bright girls decide that math is 'a waste of time.'" The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert Muller. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 282-285. Print.Morganson, Valerie J., Meghan P. Jones, and Debra A. Major. “Understanding the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: The Role of Social Coping.” career development. 59. (2010): 169-179. Print. Rodriguez, “Family Values.” Ed. Gilbert Muller. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 321-327. Print.Wai, Jonathan, Megan Cacchio, Martha Putallaz, and Matthew C. Makel. “Sex Differences in the Right Tail of Cognitive Abilities: A 30-Year Examination ." Intelligence. 38. (2010): 412-423. Press.