Gender Gaps -- Which Way?

My mind works in strange ways. That being said, expect this post to be all over the place.

I was reading through Emily Onufrak's post and she mentioned how a man "couldn't apply for many jobs because a lot of the jobs that he wanted said they wanted a women." This reminded me of a flyer I saw in Gaige about a week ago. It was an job opportunity for someone who could speak Spanish.  That quickly perked my interest, so I went to read it. I can't give the exact wording anymore, but it was similar to 'pretty, Dominican female'.  Really? Any reason for that?  Did they want to add a height/weight requirement too?  First off, why limit it to pretty Dominican woman?  And second, just what does "pretty" mean?  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all.  What is they rejected someone because they didn't think she was pretty enough? What kind of an effect would that have on the poor women?

And while we're on the subject of job opportunities based on beauty, Hooters anyone?  *insert sighing noise here*  They hire mainly females but have started hiring more males.  Yet they only hire women that fit their desired image.  I encourage you to read the legal section in the Hooters link, it's short and interesting.

From the few posts that are up already, everyone is talking about how women are being discriminated against.  Emily Q.T. mentions that girls are ahead of boys when they first start school but then fall behind by the time they graduate high school or college.  There's an interesting article that disagrees with her.  I would like to first point out that this author fails to use links properly.  The first link for 'by the BLS' should lead here.  BLS stands for Bureau of Labor Statistics, a section of the Department of Labor.  More women than men are graduating college and earning degrees, despite the fact that the same amount of each sex are attending college to begin with.

Here's a quote from that article:
In other words, the standard “disparity-proves-discrimination” dogma will not be applied in this case of a huge gender imbalance in college completion by ages 22-23, because the disparity favors women, not men. But consider what happens when the disparity favors men, and this is just one example of many:
NY Times: “Women make up 46% of the American workforce but hold just 25% of the jobs in engineering, technology and science, according to the National Science Foundation. To Sally K. Ride, a former astronaut, that persistent gender gap is a national crisis that will prove to be deeply detrimental to America’s global competitiveness.”

Okay, I can see how this might be viewed as a problem.  It's supposed to be equal, so there should be 50% always, right?  Or maybe we should look at being EQUITABLE.  Women only make up 25% of those jobs listed above.  Is there a reason?  Do they not want to take those jobs?  Are there other jobs they prefer over engineering and science and technology?  Maybe we should look at the pay instead of the actual job?  If women are given the same opportunity to choose a degree in college, doesn't that mean they are picking a career choice they would prefer?  Forgive me for possibly stereotyping, but aren't women more people friendly?  Maybe they want to pursue careers like that, in teaching, social work, etc.?  Maybe we should look at the degrees being pursued by women before we start making claims that there is a gender gap.  Stereotype number two of my rant: I'm pretty sure the majority of nursing and education majors are female.  Personally, I don't care if my nurse is a male, female, or androgynous as long as they know what they're doing.  Statistics about RIC showed a very small percentage of students pursing those fields there is a gender gap on.  I believe these numbers are from the 2009 graduates. 29.5% of graduates pursued Education and Teaching, 13.06% for Therapy and Counseling, 12.35% for Business and Management.  Those were the top 3 majors.  Then, we have the very low majors.  Computer Science: 0.45%, Math: 0.71%, Science: 2.01%
I would also like to point out that RIC has a 68% female population, possibly the highest in the state.  It is certainly higher than Providence College (56%), University of Rhode Island (55%), and Brown University (53%).  [All these statistics pertaining to colleges were obtained in a project last semester.]

Do we normally see a 'problem' when women are being favored and not men?  Are there situations around us where this is the case?  What do you think about the gender gap in those three fields?  Should things be Equal in percentage or Equitable in the opportunity to pursue that career?
As for the stereotypes above, please forgive me if anyone finds them offensive.