Interesting Facts

According to research carried out by The Debrett’s Foundation, the gender pay gap begins even before school leavers are offered a permanent job, with boys being paid 32 per cent more than girls. (On average, boys in an internship received £116.00 while girls take home was just £88.00. Start as you mean to go on I guess.)

Several shops selling toys in the UK have agreed to remove sexist labelling of girls' and boys' toys. (Following a campaign by a group called Let Toys Be Toys, a group of British parents who have been campaigning for a change in the way toys are marketed to boys and girls, Toys R Us, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots, The Entertainer and TK Maxx have all signed up. Toy manufacturer Lego, has also promised to review the way its toys are represented. As a child I was a bit of a tomboy; labelling and marketing never stopped me from playing with so called "boys" toys.)

Researchers from Cambridge University have developed a saliva test that can indicate the risk of depression in teenage boys. (Most mental health disorders start before age 24 and about one in six people will suffer from clinical depression, in the UK 10 million people will suffer at some point in their lives. The research found that teenage boys who felt down and had high levels of the "stress hormone" cortisol were 14 times more likely to go on to suffer clinical depression than boys who didn't . The test was tried on teenage boys and girls, but found to be most effective with boys.) Source

According to a survey conducted by Mothercare, when British children were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, more boys than girls dreamt of becoming dancers, the girls wanted to be footballers. (Children aged between two and 12,were asked what they wanted to be, and the following careers proved most popular:- Doctor (9%) Footballer (8%) Teacher (8%) Dancer (6%) Police officer (5%) Firefighter (4%) Scientist (4%) Musician (4%) Actor (2%) Nurse (2%) The top 5 jobs for boys:- Doctor (11%) Footballer (10%) Dancer (8%) Teacher (6%) Police officer (6%) The top 5 jobs for girls:- Doctor (8%) Teacher (8%) Footballer (7%) Dancer (5%) Police officer (5%) What? No lawyers? The future is looking bright.)

According to the Department for Education in the UK, during 2010/11  5,080 children were permanently excluded from state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and all special schools in 2010/11. ( Th e permanent exclusion rate for boys was approximately 3 times higher than that for girls. The fixed period exclusion rate for boys was almost 3 times higher than that for girls. In addition  there were 271,980 fixed period exclusions from state-funded secondary schools, 37,790 fixed period exclusions from state-funded primary schools and 14,340 fixed period exclusions from special schools. I have nothing funny to say about this.  I've got my serious head on.) Source

The word "Girl" once referred to a child of either sex. (Boys were called knave girl, and girls were called gay girl. I'm not kidding, I couldn't possibly make this up. What really makes me happy is that the word "Boy" used to mean servant, or "rough, unruly person". You can see why it replaced "knave girl", can't you.)

According to a study published in the journal New Media and Society boys much more use their mobile phones to play games, share photos and videos, listen to music and send e-mails much more than girls. (Girls tend to use their phones primarily for talking and or text messaging, but the boys used their phones for talking and texting just as much as the girls, plus the gaming etc. Of course what the researchers didn't realise is the boys were phoning and texting their girlfriends.)