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Are Girls Smarter Than Boys?

Are girls surpassing boys in education? According to two recent articles, they are.

One article, released by the French Press Agency, reads, "Girls are advancing steadily ahead of boys in educational achievement and aspiration." Likewise, a recent report issued by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), read that, "girls are doing better in the educational world than most boys."

The OECD report released on September 17, 2003 states that "young girls are more likely than young men to obtain first degrees from university-level institutions."

It's surprising, especially in a world that seems to be male-dominated; that women are stronger in studies than men. In only three of the countries surveyed, (Japan, Switzerland, and Turkey), was the proportion of young men obtaining first degrees significantly higher than young women.

Freshman Jessica Rousseau said, "It isn't surprising to me; I always thought girls did better in school than boys did because they seemed to be more interested in doing well." Even after completing primary and secondary school, young women seem to be receiving more degrees from colleges and universities.

An article released by The Sunday Telegraph, states, "[w]omen university graduates now outnumber men in most industrialized countries."

According to the report, more than two-thirds of graduates in humanities, arts, education, and health studies are earned by women. However, men outdo women in mathematics, computer sciences and engineering, and more men are graduates in those fields than women.

This trend is also apparent in this high school, where males seem to do better in math-related subjects, and females in writing and reading subjects.

Even from a male point of view, some boys also believe that girls are more motivated.

As freshman David Kober said, "I believe that girls are a lot more motivated than guys, but when they have to [guys] can definitely outsmart the girls." Girls seem to be more motivated in doing better than boys now as opposed, which could have a lot to do with the fact that they were suppressed in the past, and now are trying to push ahead.

SPS guidance counselor, Mrs. Susan Curry also agrees that they are more motivated. She said, "The world is making it easier for girls to go beyond [boys] because they want to prove now that they can do well in schools as well as all other aspects of life."

In an article released at the Annual American Psychological Association Convention, after testing many girls and boys, researchers found that "[g]irls outperformed boys" and are "better than boys in successive processing across all the age groups."

The article in the French Press even read that, "at 15, girls were better readers in every one of the 43 countries (including the U.S.!) that took part in the 2000 study."

Similarly, on the new version of the SATs, the National College Board specifically added the essay section to enhance girls' scores, as "[g]irls tend to outperform boys on writing exams, so their overall scores could benefit from the addition of the new writing section" as noted in Time magazine's October 27th cover story on the new SATs.

These statistics can be shown through SBHS's SAT results from the last 5 years as well. THEY show that on average, the math scores for males were higher every year than average female scores in math, while female verbal scores were generally higher than male verbal scores.

Also, results from Advanced Placement Testing, when broken down by ethnicity and gender, showed that females took more AP exams in 2001-2002 school year, and the 2002-2003 school year than males, especially last year, when the difference between white females who tested was almost double the amount of white males who tested.

Thus, evidence supports the idea that young women tend to perform better than young men holistically. Women are excelling in writing and reading especially, while males are excelling in math and technological subjects.

Freshman Radha Govindraj said, "I think young women are doing better in the humanities and medical fields because more opportunities are opening up, while young men are doing better in math and technological fields because they are more interested in those fields of study."

Also, women are more career-oriented these days and tend to show it in their performances at schools and universities, as according to the recent OECD survey, "in most countries females had 'a higher expectation towards their future occupations' than males," according to the recent survey released by the OECD.

They have a keener sense of aspirations they want to fulfill, more so than males.

So who is the "smarter" gender? The decision is up to the readers; after all these are just a few facts....

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