They also seem to do less work but that's life I suppose

They also seem to do less work, but that's life, I suppose."A great deal has been made of girls' academic achievements compared to boys', especially at GCSE level. Professor Michael Barber, at the Department for Education and Employment, says, "There are very consistentpatterns of girls being significantly better motivated than boys, more likely to do their homework and less likely to be excluded or to disrupt classes." Yet this doesn't tally with girls' and boys' self-perception. Barber says, "Boys think they're more likely to do well in school than girls, even though they don't. Girls are less likely to have as much confidence as boys but are more likely to succeed."The ubiquitous force of "girl power' may be sweeping through many of our institutions, from pop to politics, but self-doubt is still an issue for women in a way that it never has been for men.

The "Impostor Syndrome" - where women at high levels feel they will somehow be "found out" as incompetent or unworthy of their job title - is still a prevalent feature of their professional life. Ros Taylor, director of Plus Consulting, says "Women are more scared of taking risks They have a greater fear of failure and of looking stupid. Often they'll think, 'It's me - I'm useless', whereas men don't blame themselves if they fail at something." Professor Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe, of Leeds University, agrees: "Women managers tend to rate themselves lower than their male colleagues, and they have a lot of resistance to accepting they are perceived as more competent by others." In this sense, Walkerdine may well have identified a lack of confidence linked with expectation, rather than actual performance, that emerges in the teenage years and never really goes away.More than ever before, young women are aware that they should be rising through the ranks. But a new problem is that as girls achieve more, their results are not viewed as especially impressive - just increasingly normal. It's a scenario that's familiar to some of the pupils at North London Collegiate, a private girls' school that's among the top three in the league tables. Naomi, now taking her GCSEs, says, "For some the work is effortless. For others it's a long, hard struggle which is never going to pay off because there's always more to be done and someone doing better." Her friend says, "We're already being encouraged to sort out what we want to do now.

I know it's a long time off, but we're told we have to have good grades for later on in life."Tamara, 15, agrees. "Both my mother and grandmother came to this school and there wasn't the same pressure then. With me, it's far more, 'You've got to go on and get a good career.' To opt out of the system would be totally unacceptable." She's also aware that her expectations are probably coloured by a bright peer group. ''I know this school isn't a true reflection of society but in this environment it's very easy to think you're behind and everyone's better than you." Another girl chips in, "I don't think boys worry about their future so much I think they just work and get it over and done with.