Compared to advancing your knowledge of programming, CAD, et al, it's a lot easier to bolster your ego and social standing with video games, so that's what those kids do.

I think the solution (for schools, anyway) would be adult-led structured activities where intelligence and hard work are rewarded: electronics/robotics/programming clubs, with long-term group projects where people with varied levels of experience can be accommodated.

I'd naively like to believe that gender can be left out of it, other than making a structured effort to recruit students irrespective of gender.

>bolster your ego and social standing with video games

I had never had it explained to me like that - maybe girls and boys separate themselves so much as teenagers there's just a huge amount of information we don't have. If I was back at school and I knew that I would have had no problem hanging out in the computer lab, knowing that what was going on was a male-growing-up thing and outside of my participation.

I believe that we can have gender-neutral education. Sports is good at it but women and minorities fought hard in the 20th century for equal right to the field. Something to think about.