At a meeting of my peers, I often wonder why there are so few female business leaders, especially in the STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — industries so vital to our state’s economic prosperity and national security, The HeraldNet reports. The stats are grim: Women hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs, a number that has been stagnant throughout the past decade, even as college-educated women have grown their share in the overall workforce. While there is definitely a gender issue at play, STEM is saddled with a bigger PR problem as evidenced by the fact that 61 percent of middle school students would rather take out the garbage than do their math homework…