My thoughts are similar, but I don't think it has to do with who our role models are, rather what these role models do.

Guys are taught to idolize sports stars like Tom Brady or Michael Jordan. We look up to people who trained hard to become athletes, working everyday towards their passion, and the result is a high payout off athleticism and physical prowess. Now granted, most males I've encountered in STEM give zero fucks about sports, but we've definitely heard many many many times while growing up that the ideas of a man correlate to strength, hard work, and training. Along the way, our dreams differed and we've looked to exercise our brain, and our idols change to something more personal, whether it be the President of the U.S. or the CEO of the next big company.

Now look at what girls have to dream about. Boys. They're taught to look up to people like Zac Efron and the Jonas Brothers or One Direction. What values do these cute male popstars instill into the young female demographic? I mean it's fucking EVERYWHERE. Try walking down an aisle at Walmart without having pink dolls, posters of Justin Bieber, or princesses and Frozen (it's been 2 fucking years already) thrown at your face. It's sad but the young female demographic has nothing but garbage to look up to. No dreams, just dreams of boys.

And as a result, look at what the disparity brought us. The boy who was curious about the Star Wars toys he was bought as a kid becomes a physicist. The girl who was bought an Elsa dress-up kit developed a keen fashion sense early on in life. Like what the fuck, it's obvious where the disparity in our working men and women is coming from, yet this is never the discussion topic.

Instead, it's all about "fixing gender pay equality" because treating the symptom is easier than treating the cause. Your idea isn't far off from the truth, but it's not about "see scientist, become scientist." It's just the fact that girls do not have a source of dreams, and this comes from the lack of an archetype for a female rolemodel.