Where are the boys?

My local newspaper puts out a "Kids in Print" contest each year: http://blog.masslive.com/nie/2010/03/check_out_kids_in_print_today.html. It is a great program. However, I noticed that this year and last year almost all the winners are girls. Why is that? Do boys not enter the contest? Boys tend to lag behind girls in verbal development at least in the younger grades so that may be part of the explanation. I'm truly not sure, but as the mother of sons it bothers me.

I don't want to take anything away from the young ladies who won - they did great work and I am sure the judges did all they could to be impartial. But, I do know that if the opposite situation were true - and the vast majority of the winners were boys, people would be up in arms about discrimination and the need to level the playing field. Have we reached the point in our educational system where the reverse is now true? Just some food for thought.