Despite being born in the middle of a technology boom, girls remain less likely to pursue careers in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and maths.
Only one in four IT graduates - and one in 10 engineering graduates - are women.
Associate Professor Kelsie Dadd says a lack of role models could be to blame for the lack of young women in STEM fields.
"Most of the academics, if they go to university, will be male. A lot of the other people that they'll be going through with in university are male. It makes it that little bit more difficult for the young women to come though and think that, 'Yes, this is a field for me.'"
But a program based at the University of New South Wales is aimed at changing that.
Called Curious Minds, it brings together diverse students from regional and metropolitan New South Wales to learn about science and technology.
Students learn to operate a drone and to try their skills at 3D printing.
Student Eloise Dennis participated in the program and says it opened her mind to new career pathways.
"I ... I've always had ... like, when I've been doing sciences, competing against more the boys, because the girls are thinking, you know, 'Oh, this isn't a subject I should be trying in.'"
The University of New South Wales' Veena Sahajwalla says girls are performing at least as well as boys in science and maths at high school.
But she says far fewer are pursuing the subjects in further education.
"We need STEM skills - you know, the science, technology, engineering, maths. All the jobs in the future ... Numbers like 75 per cent of jobs are going to require STEM skills in the future. If we actually don't see enough girls coming through the pipeline, then there's going to be a massive gap."
Professor Dadd says, while girls are just as capable as boys, studies show they are less likely to believe they are.
"When they do studies to look at girls' perceptions of their abilities, they always are less likely to say that they are good at science or good at maths. Maybe their teachers don't encourage them as much. Maybe they just don't see themselves as being as good at science and maths because that's what everybody's telling them."
Curious Minds is aimed especially at changing minds as the first step to changing the future.
