Pipher is Full of It

I never had a chance to respond to Mary Pipher's Academic Selves, so I have decided to take this opportunity to say that her article is very outdated. I realize that the article was not written recently, but her views on how girls are frail and afraid of displaying their true intelligence is an old and dead idea.
She goes on to say that "boys are more likely to be praised for academics and intellectual work" (280), which used to be the case before the new millennium. She says that "girls are more likely to be praised for their clothing, behaving properly, and obeying rules" (280), and maybe in some cases that is true, but it is not the first expectation that we have for young girls anymore. Society is not expecting all boys to be aggressive, competitive, and genius, as well as girls to be dainty, frail and well mannered.
Sports have for many years been dominated by men, but now high schools and junior highs are getting praise for their women's teams, who are on top of their game in softball, soccer, volleyball, and golf. High Schools have actually allowed women to be on their football teams and wrestling teams with much discretion, however, these acts of competitiveness proves that women are not going to break if a ball hits them in the head.
Girls may have been perceived as math boneheads, especially in Pipher's article, "girls get anxious, which interferes with problem solving, and so they fail and are even more anxious and prone to self doubt the next time around," (280). This woman is lumping every girl into this group of failures. She tries to come off as someone who wants to help spread inspiration, that she feels for young girls and knows what they are going through. She expresses deep concern for the future of girls in education, but she is only representing herself as a woman who has suckered herself into all of these sexist beliefs. She is a sexist herself.
Maybe I am being to harsh, I don't remember the 90's, I was barely alive in the 80's, so these conflicts in education did not have a lasting effect on me, but if this woman had written this article present day, I would have wondered if she had been living in a box for twenty years.