My son’s are chess enthusiasts (both have won state championships /bragging). At this year’s state competition there one, only one, girl competing. My oldest son competed in Scholars Bowl where there was about 3 times as many boys as girls.
When girls are in the classroom they are in an environment that allows the to exceed their boy counterparts. When actually competing in academics outside the classroom boys far surpass the girls.
The trouble is that such inter-school competition is not encouraged or adequately rewarded. In a rational world, interscholastic debating teams should be a big thing, at least on the level of golk and tennis competition, even though odds are against being put on a par with baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer and football. Maybe then we would get lawyers who can actually litigate in court, like the TV lawyers do.