It has always been my belief that girls did better. They always did when I was in school, anyway. This is nothing new to me.
Agree this is not new. Boys mature later than girls do. Generally by High school they catch up.
It’s what I experienced too; and then by high school the boys are doing better than girls in certain areas. (And I have no idea what ‘contraception’ has to do with something that’s always been true.)
Men and women have similar average intelligence, but men have a higher variance. This means that you'll get both more boy geniuses and more boys in special ed classes.
The valedictorian and salutatorian were both girls in my graduating class in high school. In college, top two were guys. Maybe we improve in college.