Answer:
24 males and 7 females
Explanation:
Let's call f the number of women
Let's call m the number of men
We know that:
The drama class has a total of 31 Students
This is:

We also know that:
The number of females is 17 less than the number of males. This is:

Now we substitute the second equation in the first

Now let's solve the equation for m




Now we substitute m in the equation and solve for f.
