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Originally Posted by DanaC

This idea of girls finding socialising somuch easier - and being emotionally literate at an earlier age than boys may be true for some - but really doesn't describe my, or many of my friends', experience of girlhood.

That's because gender generalizations are usually centers of curve balls, not absolutes:

I know it's been observed in math skills, language skills, violent crime ratio's, even something as basic as height.

It's never "All [insert gender] are better then [insert opposite gender]". On any spectrum, there's plenty members of the opposite gender who'd be better then the average member of the gender in advantage, and vise versa (Hell if you modernize this to include transfolk as the gender they identify with, the cross sections could even apply to reproduction capacities, though it would be a bit more difficult to find variable criteria to draw a curve ball from).

That doesn't mean though that generalizations can't be talked about, are useless or aren't meaningful, especially in how they impact society at large (Like in the case of various industries and professions), just that they don't make sufficiently good indicator to prejudge an individual.

Originally Posted by DanaC

In answer to the question about the wise mums in adverts and popular cultrure: I am fine with portrayals of wise women, as long as they are not a counterpoint to, and predicated on, a lack of male wisdom. I find the whole idea that women are somehow emotionally superior, or that they are somehow always the 'grown-up' in the relationship quite distasteful. It pisses me off when people argue that having women in the workplace will improve that workplacebecause of the special skills and qualities that women bring - because it is still predicated on an innate and all-encompassing difference between male and female brains and minds.

That just isn't how the world works.

I agree, but what I am more curious about is less in judging the phenomena and more in understanding it's role in larger dynamics. What does it do to young and still maturing girls to see those depictions? How does it shape world view, ego, ideals for the self, interaction with the opposite gender, and so on?