Height maybe?

    A long time ago, I was talking to my friend Lee about a study we'd heard about regarding female self-esteem. To give an idea how long ago this was, he had too toddler daughters then; now they are lovely young women, one starting college, the other finishing high school. The study indicated that girls scored similarly to boys on measures of self-esteem until about the age of 11, then their scores plummeted. The authors appeared to be mystified as to what might occur around that age that might be causing this. We more wondered what planet the authors might be from and felt that puberty was the obvious answer.
    However, it occurs to me that height might explain it equally well. Girls hit their adult height younger than boys do. Thus, there are a few years when most girls are taller than most boys of the same age. Maybe girls lose self-esteem by feeling gawky during the years when they are relatively tall, then the low self-esteem is reinforced when they are suddenly left behind by the fast-growing boys. I've seen other studies indicating that taller men are more successful and better paid than shorter men; perhaps this needs to be generalized to everybody. Just a thought.