Interesting that the article is about letting girls "tinker" more and the books advertised at the end of the article shows only boys working with goggles and such. What kind of message are YOU sending?

I agree with Francie becasue I was raised like that. Just as I love what is considered girlie stuff, I thorough enjoy DIY projects involving power tools and the works. I too can attribute this to both my mother and my father. I was supported and comforted in who I am but never coddled (those endless trips to Home Depot with my dad never hurt either.)

It's all in what you expose your children to. My daughter loves to tinker, but spends lots of time with her daddy in the garage. That's one aspect this article didn't touch on, is how Dad's attention toward the daughters effect their interest in play. My husband is very sweet and supportive with my daughter, but he does not coddle her.
It's not a competition between boys and girls, it's about helping kids be their best. The world needs balance, creating more female engineers is good for the world; the way more male nurses and teachers are too.

I think that girls are not interested in tinkering and boys have more of a tendencytowards it on their own, they find the broken staff and tinker with it until they fix it and i think it's ok if this is their strong point why should girls compete with them on it, girls have enough to shine on without the competition

Are we going to encourage boys to express their emotions, be more outwardly affectionate as we ask girls to 'tinker?' I sure hope so.