GIRLS WILL BE . . . BOYS - AND IT'S NOT A PRETTY SIGHT

So says a new report by 77 U.S. universities

A generation after a great rethinking of gender roles and the forces that
classify children by their sex, the results are in: girls are behaving more
like boys - and it isn't always a pretty picture.

Girls have virtually caught up with boys in math performance and have
closed the gap considerably in science. But they are now smoking, drinking
and using drugs as often as boys their age. And though they're not nearly
as violent as boys, girls are increasingly more likely to find their way
into trouble with the law.

A status report released yesterday by an alliance of 77 university and
other research centres describes young females in the United States as a
population stepping out of many traditional stereotypes that have defined
girls for generations. And that, it is becoming clear, can be both good and
bad.

``Adolescent girls are getting more of a sense of entitlement in healthy
ways and feeling bolder, but some may be acting this out in ways that are
not so healthy,'' said Lynn Phillips, author of The Girls Report, which
compiled the most recent research on girls from hundreds of academic and
government sources. ``There are ways we want girls to catch up with boys,
but there are also ways we want boys to catch up with girls.''

Some of the progress girls have made comes from public policies and private
efforts - to enhance math, science and sports programs for girls, for
example. But more subtle social pressures have also had an effect, pushing
girls to follow the less desirable patterns set by boys in other ways.

While 13 per cent of Grade 8 girls reported smoking in 1991, the report
shows, that figure increased to 21 per cent in 1996, a faster increase than
that for boys. And nearly 17 per cent of Grade 8 girls used marijuana in
1996, compared with just over 5 per cent in 1991.

In its report, the National Council for Research on Women also found:

* While girls are still less likely than boys to be arrested for violent
crimes, the rate at which they are being arrested for these crimes
increased faster than that for boys between 1986 and 1995.

* Girls participate in a wider range of sports and exercise more than ever
before, but they still lag far behind boys. And a U.S. federal study found
that the percentage of senior high school girls participating in sports
declined from 46 per cent in 1980 to 41 per cent a decade later, while male
participation remained even at 63 per cent.

* After years of concern about girls trailing boys in math performance, a
1996 test administered by the U.S. education department found no
significant differences between average scores for Grade 8 and 12 girls and
boys.

* In science, girls perform about as well as boys until Grade 12, when
boys' average scores pull ahead and more boys excel in science.

Although much of what the new report documents are the problems that face
girls, it also challenges many popular stereotypes. It questions, for
example, the notion that adolescent girls are doomed to go through a period
of low self-esteem or that the teen years are inevitably filled with anger
and stress.

It also makes clear that, despite their convergence with boys on some
measures, in many important ways, girls remain very different.

They are twice as likely to be depressed as boys, for example. And a U.S.
federal survey of high school students found that 34 per cent of girls see
themselves as overweight, compared with 22 per cent of boys. Nearly two out
of three of the girls were attempting to lose weight.

Racial differences among girls are important in many instances. African
American girls, for example, have more positive perceptions of their own
bodies than do white and Hispanic girls.

And black girls are significantly less likely to smoke than girls of other
races or African American boys.

They also found that girls are frequently the victims of violent crime. It
cited studies estimating that between one-third and one-fourth of girls are
sexually victimized by the time they finish high school. That includes a
range of experiences from rape to sexual harassment.

And nearly two-thirds of rape victims are under 17, the report said.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)