In Naughty, Nice Deeds, Girls Equal Boys, Study Finds

A generation after a great national rethinking of gender roles and the forces that classify children by their sex, the results are in: American girls are behaving more like boys--and it isn’t always a pretty picture.

Girls have virtually caught up with boys in math performance and have closed the gap considerably in science. But they now smoke, drink and use drugs as often as boys.

A status report released Tuesday by the National Council for Research on Women, a consortium of universities and research centers also found that girls participate in a wider range of sports and exercise more than ever before, but they still lag far behind boys.