Girls (11462)

A girl is a female child, as opposed to a boy, a young male child. The age at which a female person transitions from girl to woman varies in different societies; typically the transition from adolescence to maturity is taken to occur in the late teens. more...

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The English word (first documented in 1290) originally designated a child of either sex. During the 14th century its sense was narrowed to specifically female children. Subsequently, it was extended to refer also to mature but unmarried young women since the 1530s. Usage in the sense of (romantic) "sweetheart" arose in the 17th century.

Historically, girls faced discrimination and limitations on the roles they were expected to play in their societies, and the United Nations targeted discrimination in schooling to end by 2010. An ongoing debate about the influences of nature versus nurture in shaping the behavior of girls and boys raises questions about whether the roles played by girls are the result of inborn differences or socialization. Images of girls in art, literature, and popular culture often demonstrate assumptions about gender roles.

Demographics

There are 2.18 billion people (est. UNICEF, 2004) aged 18 or under in the world, for a total of more than one billion living girls. From birth, girls are a slight minority due to both natural factors (the human sex ratio has been observed since the 1700s as approximately 1,050 boys for every 1,000 girls) and due to sex selection on the part of parents.

Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights specifies that "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all", girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary (70% enrollment vs. 74% for boys) or secondary education (59% vs. 65%). This disparity is targeted to end under the Millennium Development Goals and has closed substantially since 1990.↑ 

Gender roles

According to feminist analysis, in all cultures, girls have been socialized into gender roles, although the degree to which behavior is innate or environmentally determined is greatly debated. In most cultures and time periods of the world, girls have traditionally played with dolls and toy cooking and cleaning equipment, while boys prefer toys and games that require more physical activity or simulated violence, such as toy trucks, balls, and toy guns. Girls are less often encouraged to pursue sports, with the exception of sports that might be considered "feminine," such as figure skating or gymnastics; or those considered "gender-neutral," such as tennis. They may be prevented from participating in many of the same activities that boys participate in at the same age, as a matter of protecting them from perceived outside dangers, such as boys and men, or anything that may cause physical injury. Sometimes boys are presumed to be more responsible than girls, except in the cases of caring for younger children, which is sometimes thought to be instinctual in girls. Girls, as a group, may be perceived as being more docile than boys, and as being less capable of rational decision making and more governed by emotional responses.

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