While I was growing up, I myself heard a lot about boys doing better than girls in school. Girls participated less than boys in class, I read somewhere. Maybe that explained why they showed less grasp of important concepts on some tests. Perhaps the problem was that teachers and parents had lower expectations of girls mathematics and science ability and didn’t encourage girls as much. Or maybe it was gender stereotypes which made girls want to focus more on their body rather than their brain, in order to be more attractive to boys. Something was going wrong for girls, anyway. Everybody agreed on that.
But when I went to university, most of my fellow mathematics students were women. I went to a statistics school, and again, it was mostly women. In fact, these days 57% of university students are women, and most bachelor’s degrees being awarded nationwide go to women. That may now be true of master’s degrees as well. If the trend continues, in just a few more years doctorate and professional degrees will also go to more women.
Younger boys and girls also show differences in academic performance, in one direction: girls do better. In 4th, 8th, and 12th grades, girls score higher in writing and reading than do boys, and are roughly equal with boys at mathematics scores in those three grades. Girls used to be behind at mathematics, so again, if the trend continues, they will outperform boys at mathematics throughout elementary, middle and high schools.