casual: you live in the US. the culture there is way different towards girls than in china.
in china, there is bias from some rural parents against girls, but once the girls grow up and in society, even high school, they're treated no differently than boys.
in HUST's School of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, applied chemistry, chemical engineering and chemical biology majors all have around 40% girls. My own girlfriend is a chemical engineering major.
Of course, your view may be biased by your specific department; the electronics engineering, mechanical engineering and physics departments are like shaolin temples
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on topic: the government should seriously legalize prostitution already. There's no reason to keep it illegal, its everywhere and just serves as cheap propaganda to make it seem like the police is not incompetent. if it was legal, it could be taxed.
if they're worried about morals, don't we already have anti-drug and anti-tobacco education? just add anti-prostitution education, moral problems aren't for the government to decide.