As a female engineer in the heavy equipment/mining industry I wholeheartedly agree with your comment that this and other tech sites have become hostile anytime gender issues come up.. And I'm not sure why. This community used to be so welcoming of everyone who had something intelligent to say... It seems like the level headed posts are getting fewer and far between.

Good on you for not sticking your daughter into a label. Growing up I liked girl stuff and boy stuff: it didn't matter if it was pink and purple or primary colored so long as I could create something with it :). Legos and Knex changed into CAD and designing machines with wheels taller than my garage that can drive themselves.
          There were a lot of people from both genders along the way that would label me or try to get me to fit there stereotypes of what a girl should be, but growing up with a dad as an engineer also put me in touch with those people who encouraged me and told me how awesome it was to be smart and most importantly to love learning! Nowadays I'm working full time doing a job I love, I have a wonderful fiancé who stays home in a house we own with our newborn son (I'm sure his job is harder than mine some days), all thanks to going into engineering. All those people who told me that I shouldn't go into a STEM field because I was a girl, well alot of them are working retail jobs and still living at home with their parents.
          Overall the best advice I can give everyone is that if your son or daughter is interested in something nurture it! Sports or art or science, they all give us ways to grow, and it really doesn't matter what gender you are so long as you never stop learning.

I had taken a 23andme test out of curiosity about ancestry and a type of cancer that ran in the family that is known to have a very strong genetic link. Before taking it though I read reviews/commentary from all over the web and I noticed one glaringly obvious reality. People don’t get statistics very well, and even those that do have a blind spot when it comes to odds that affect them. (lottery methods anyone?)

All over you see negative comments saying that the test is garbage because it said I had reduced chance of getting this and I already have it, or the opposite. There’s some cognitive dissonance there that might just be a part of human nature, nowhere on 23andme or other sites that I have looked at do they every say you will get this or you won’t get that. Heck even on the cosmetic results such as what hair or eye color it’s a likely will/likely won’t statement.

Sadly I can see one area which might be one of 23andme’s problems was something that I saw as a strength. In the initial presentation of results it dumbs it down to just numbers and a confidence—simplifies in some cases a half dozen tests into one percentage. If you dug down into where the numbers came from they provide links to the studies, sample sizes, dates, and all the scientific info one could ever want. But if you stopped at just those initial numbers and acted on them due to what you feel you know of statistics? Yeah it could cause some trouble/confusion—though still imho much less than those who go and start taking all matter of homeopathic snake oil for that twinge in their back they are sure is cancer.

My test for the most part came back with what I expected: some cool info on where some of my family likely came from and with the regards to the cancer gene I didn’t come up snake eyes. That doesn’t mean I won’t have to go in for regular testing and be vigilant, and it doesn’t really change the way I do manage my health, it just makes me a little bit more knowledgeable about what’s in me and much more curious about what future research holds. If it came back that I have that “bad” gene what would have happened? Likely the same, though I probably would have shared my results with my GP to see what she thought, I’m not a doctor after all.

Agree on all your wife's counts. As a woman in a insanely male dominant area (mechanical engineer working on mining equipment). I actually find the working atmosphere more positive and cooperative than I ever have in female dominant workplaces. Women who get into technology and the sciences (and stick with it) are different from the norm, and more 'sane' from the emotional rollercoaster and drama point of view (at least from my biased opinion ;)..) Working with the guys, has been a suprisingly good experience, while I don't deny that sexism is still out there, I have luckily not seen much of it from the American end. Try telling the Japanese that you're a female American mining engineer and well... its a completely other story if you know what I mean.

I understand my job will never be for most women, but that's alright for me, I have a blast at it anyway :). I don't want women to be coaxed into jobs just because there is a sex ratio imbalance, BUT.... I do wish that those women who LOVE science and technology are supported in it and not told that they have no chance to suceed just because they happen to have breasts, ::steps off platform::