A couple comments:
Our self-contained gifted class for "exceptional" students has always been predominantly boys. For the first time in 8 yrs, we have 6 girls and 12 boys (previously it was only 1 or 2 girls at any time).
While I have no daughters, I see moms of very gifted girls focus on appearance, clothes, dance, music (almost back to 1800s Jane Austen times) rather than academic accomplishments. My niece (now age 7) scored 150 on IQ test 3 yrs ago. My very intelligent sister, who was skipped 3 times herself, has not investigated "gifted" or out of the ordinary paths/challenges for her daughter (of course I constantly email her information, but she's just not interested). Are there different expectations for girls?
Most of the valedictorians from the two high schools in town are girls...This doesn't necessarily relate to IQ--it's more work ethic. I wonder if there's an "obedience" component of getting great grades that is more suited toward women. For example, if a class is boring and an assignment or paper is bogus, my son will rush through because he feels confident and empowered to make the assessment that it is not worth much of his valuable time/effort. On the other hand, when I was a student, I would have worked to complete the assignment to the best of my ability, without questioning how worthwhile is was.
