i recently put that question to maria klawe, president of harvey mudd college in california. she was in washington to attend a conference about changing that trend. >> dr. maria chrau, thank you for talking with us. >> it's a pleasure to be with you, judy. >> woodruff: so when it comes to girls and women going into the sciences, what's happening? we look at women and girls and there's so many more men than young women looking into that. why is that? >> we have lots of women going into chemistry and biology, ma m because they're going to go to med school but we get very few young women going into computer sciences in physics and areas and engineering. we know why? they think it's not interesting they think they wouldn't be good at it and they have the image of people in those fields that they don't think is attractive an what we encourage our young people do in this country is follow your passion. well, if you don't think it's interesting and you don't think you'd do well at it, would grow there? probably not. >> woodruff: why is it boys thing it's interesting and young women

i recently put that question to maria klawe, president of harvey mudd college in california. she was in washington to attend a conference about changing that trend. >> dr. maria chrau, thank you for talking with us. >> it's a pleasure to be with you, judy. >> woodruff: so when it comes to girls and women going into the sciences, what's happening? we look at women andgirls and there's soany more men tha young women looking into that. why is that? >> we have lots of women going into chemistry and biology, ma m because they're going to go to med school but we get very few young women going into computer sciences in physics and areas and engineering. we know why? they think it's not interesting they think they wouldn't be good at it and they have the image of people in those fields that they don't think is attractive and what we encourage our young people do in this country is followour passion. well, if you don't think it's interesting and u don't think you'd do well at it, would grow there? probably not. >> woodruff: why is it boys thing it's interesting and young women don't?

for example, it was a great article this morning in the "new york times" featuring harvey mudd, one ofg that she is doing there to try to change the curriculum to encourage women to go into science and technology and engineering and math, those are the growth fields of the future. and so we have been doing everything here in the obama administration to open up those doors to all people and encourage girls at a very early able to get interested in those fields and embrace them because there thank's where the country is going. in order for our young folks to be globally competitive, we need to encourage them to take advantage of those kinds of fields and to go into them. so friday gives us an opportunity to take a step back and look at everything we are doing from helping small business to combatting domestic violence to creating an atmosphere where girls and everyone can get a world-class education, making college affordable, a whole range of ways in wit obama administration has been there for young women and girls. >> jon meachum. >> valerie, i was going to ask you about education and