i find it interesting what you write here because this (the pressure from other women, behavior from other males) is not what I have experienced in the european countries where I have been at all. The problem there mostly is that women (statistically) just are not interested in the topic, just as they are not interested in e.g. electrotechnics.
Now we could argue endlessly why that would be: is it in the genes? is it the upbringing? is it how these fields are portrayed in culture? I don't know, but the fact of the matter is that women, on average, just simply do not want this kind of job. And when I talk to some of them now, after I had this job, as a male, for a couple of decades, I think they might have a point.