Female Supremacy Articles - Page 6

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It's not just on the soft side that the girls excel. Ms. Li, 18, is one of the school's top three students in math. (The other two are boys.) "I hate to say I'm a math nerd, but I am," she says with a laugh. Ms. Milkereit, 18, wants to specialize in biological and life sciences. (She also speaks French, German, and Spanish.) Ms. Tremblay, 17, is also interested in science. Ms. Zener, 17, plans to do a five-year combined course in biomedical science and business administration. "I've always wanted to be a doctor and an astronaut," she says.

Speaking of doctors, women are now dominant in medical school. Only five years ago, they made up 49 per cent of first-year students. Today they make up 59 per cent. At Hamilton's McMaster University, 69 per cent are women, and women make up more than two-thirds of incoming students in Quebec.

Heather Munroe-Blum, the principal of McGill University in Montreal, recalls that as recently as 20 years ago, women were being discouraged from going to professional schools because they might take places away from men. "But women have strong aptitudes in these areas, surprise, surprise! If you look just at academic performance, girls excel -- especially in medicine and law," she says.

At McGill's medical school, men still outnumber women slightly. But women dominate in law school (by 3 to 2) and even management. In the sciences, it's also 3 to 2 in favour of the women. "It has literally been a complete reversal in 25 years," says Ms. Munroe-Blum.