Gender/Math

This topic stems from a conversation in my 11th grade class yesterday. After reading passages about Einstein and Marie Curie, the textbook offered the following question for classroom discussion. "Agree or disagree: boys are better at math than girls." I laughed to myself because obviously by now we all know that "boys and girls are equally as good at math, but boys have just been historically pointed towards the subject of math and science in school." Oh wait, I'm in Georgia. Oh wait, only the boys in this class know English. G, who is always kind, sort of stepped back on this topic even though he usually has a lot to say. This may have been because when M and L stated that they definitely agreed, I gave them the "are you crazy?" look. L's reasoning behind the agreement was that boys are just naturally smarter and more genius (it's especially good if you could hear the way he was pronouncing genius "gene-you-us"), and sometimes girls seem better but that is only because the boys are being lazy, but innately boys are better. And the girls who are smart at math just had to work really hard to memorize everything, and it took much more effort because they are not naturally as good. He goes on to use Einstein as an example, because Einstein was very bad in school but he was naturally a genius. Then M comes into the conversation and says that even if we look at their class, all the boys are smarter than the girls. And most famous scientists and mathematicians were men. This is when G, who I think notices that I feel uncomfortable, comes into the conversation and starts saying that maybe it doesn't matter who is smarter because technology is advancing so quickly maybe someday no one will have to remember anything anymore. We will all have computers to remember everything for us.
So, I am basically in shock here, trying to decide how I will formulate a good solid response that is not only incredibly intelligent (because I'm a female so now I have to really defend females everywhere), but in simple enough English that they will be able to understand. So I'm coming up with my answer when my co-teacher, N, steps in. "I agree with you, I think boys are better than girls at maths usually." This is when in my haed, I am thinking "WHAT!"
And I shake my head and said "I really disagree." And the second I open my mouth to continue on, the bell rings.
As we walk out, N is still bickering a bit with M and L, saying that she was very good at math growing up, better than most of the boys in her class. I tell N that it's just no true, and she says "well, in their class it is true." And then the conversation ends.
But what I wanted to say all along, was that of course this seems true. Of course it seems as though men are better than women at math and science, when growing up boys are tracked into the scientific and mathematical areas of school, more because of gender roles than because of actual intelligence. And historically, of course more men were scientists and mathematicians because women weren't even allowed into higher education until fairly recently. The famous women scientists were aberrations not because "wow, it's so crazy this lady is actually smart!" but because they were the few who could step beyond the baby-making dinner-cooking gender roles expected of them. And living in Georgia, I suppose I should not be surprised by this mindset, because many of the women here are in the role of housewife. When I am frequently told about girls who drop out of school because they are getting married and having babies (in high school), it's easier to understand why the boys don't think they are intelligent. Because maybe the girls are the smartest in the class when they are young, but then they give up education for a simple life of diaper changing and dish washing, and although that is a role that is necessary in the world, it won't win a Nobel Prize...
All this talk just makes me want to go do a crazy science experiment and show my students what's up!!!