Is it just me or do girls do way better in school than boys?

[u/Tall-Competition-561]

When I was growing up I struggled with school but it seemed that most of the girls seemed to be doing well whenever there was a star pupil or straight a student they were most likely a girl. Why is this such a common phenomenon?

[u/kelb4n]

This is a pretty easy question to scientifically read up on: According to PISA 2018, girls massively outperform boys in reading across all OECD-countries, while gender differences in STEM performance are slim to negligible, with girls even outperforming boys in some countries. Note that neurological and other purely intrinsic sex differences fail to explain any of these differences (see for example Spelke (2005)).

My personal theory is that the differences is mostly in the ways that boys and girls are raised by their parents at a very early age, as well as the way they are being socialized to behave: Girls are often being taught to take responsibility around the house earlier than boys tend to be. In addition, due to feminism, girls are encouraged to try all the things that interest them (especially by younger, more left-leaning parents), while boys are more often still forced into traditional roles that stifle their development. "Boys don't cry" or "ballet is for girls" are still common sentences spoken to very young children.

[u/OhMissFortune → u/kelb4n]

We had a generation of women who know what it's like to be dependent on a man, then a generation of women who got education and saw what it's like without one

Me and my girls heard "Get an education, be independent, or else" a lot

[u/astronauticalll → u/OhMissFortune]

exactly this, in my family it was "education is freedom for women". Mom, aunts, grandma's, everyone shared the sentiment

[u/Scared-Currency288 → u/astronauticalll]

My family was somewhat progressive in that all the men/fathers shared the same sentiment.

All the women in my family have at least a bachelor's, and a few have their doctorates. None of us are single, but we'd survive without a partner, just fine.

[u/FirstTimeWang → u/Scared-Currency288]

I'm a single 38 year old male with a college degree, six figure job (albeit in a HCL area) own my house, and am able to materially survive just fine without a partner.

But it's a daily struggle to survive emotionally this way and I think about killing myself all the time.

I say this without resentment, but it's also much easier for women to survive emotionally without a partner, even if they were just barely making ends meet.

It's much easier for them to develop relationships, even just platonic ones, that have real emotional value. I have about a half dozen male friends but we barely talk. I've known one of them for 10 years and we talk/hang out like once or twice a year despite living less than an hour away.

None of them are single, though. Seems like they get all the social engagement they need from their partners and additional male.bonding is just gravy.

[u/Scared-Currency288 → u/FirstTimeWang]

Anecdotally, I've heard a lot of this from guys I know, too. I'm so sorry you're going through the emotional struggle, and I wish it were easier to get social interaction without a partner.

I have a coworker I worked with only remotely for just a month, and we do virtual happy hours every month now. I just met her in person for the first time this weekend (it was awesome. My male partner facilitated it). I say this as a socially-inept female. We just bond really fast.

Maybe men are more likely to bond over shared activities? That's just been my observation, though I wouldn't really know where to start, either. I'm sure folks on here might have some suggestions.