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It’s assumed that men generally do well in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, collectively known as STEM.

In light of this, high-profile efforts are usually aimed at encouraging more girls and women to move into STEM.

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But there’s a big kicker to men’s success in STEM: Young males aren’t doing at all well in other fields.

New Canadian research says high-school girls are, on average, doing as well as boys in STEM — plus they’re outperforming boys in almost every other sphere.

A large study by David Card and Abigail Payne has found that girls and boys in Grade 12 end up roughly equally prepared to go into science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

But girls also excel in the languages, humanities and other subjects, while boys do not.

“The conventional wisdom is that the gender gap is about women and the forces — discrimination, sexism, parenting, aptitudes and choices — that make women less likely to study in STEM fields,” says Alex Tabarrok, a high-profile Canadian-American economist who has reviewed the study.