You then ask: Why are there just as many male academics as there are female? I would ask: Why do males fill out almost all highly skilled and/or highly paid fields, despite poorer school results on average.
This is a very important question which points out the true scale and direction of the problem.
After all, they're gatekeepers and enforcers.
Since society ridiculously built a massive infrastructure based on gender, women and men are trained differently. To the intellectual destruction of men.
I think you mean "equate". "Equivocate" means something quite different.
My guess is that the study focused mostly on K-8 or K-12 maybe with some college. In contrast, you are talking about what happens in the world of work. There the boys/men can be plenty serious, hard working, aggressive, bright, ambitious, good at planning, etc.
From all I've seen, for high end technical work, especially research, in STEM fields, the men totally and effortlessly blow away nearly all the women.
In my experience, in grades 1-8, the teachers treated me like dirt. Thank goodness for social promotion! But in math, from grade 9 through high school, college, graduate school, work, to the present, I totally effortlessly blow away nearly every female I've come across. It's like the females are from a different planet. In other ways, the females totally, effortlessly blow me away.
Or, from E. Fromm, "Men and women deserve equal respect as persons but are not the same.". From all I can see, this is true.
To say that girls worker harder than boys offends me greatly. These studies are never accurate and somewhat biased, and I think work ethic is something that can't be averaged out like this. I don't doubt a lot of girls out there do work harder than boys, but making statements like: "Girls succeed over boys in school because they are more apt to plan ahead, set academic goals, and put effort into achieving those goals." is offensive and heavily typecasting all boys into the same category.
There are boys out there who put effort into planning and setting academic goals, because I am friends with many guys like this who care and put the effort in, I also know as many women who do the same. If this study were truth, why are there just as many male academics as there are female? If anything, I have seen more male academics than female (in my experience and field). Imagine if the effort that went into this study was put to better use, to help solve a problem or achieve a result that would benefit society? Studies like this are a waste of time.
I realise this is just a study and the whole point might be to highlight issues with school curriculum and have no sexist undertones, but at the same time, studies like this are relatively useless. The modern school system being completely broken to the point kids are falling behind is a very well known fact, and sadly, no study is going to change that anytime soon.
Maybe if we had less studies and more action on fixing things, then there wouldn't be instances of boys getting left behind in the schooling system. Did it ever occur to those responsible for this study that maybe, just maybe, the system is actually broken? And maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with what sex you are? I feel like society already has enough issues when it comes to rampant sexism and gender equality without more fuel being thrown on the fire. All studies like this do is take a handful of people, average and collate the results and then proclaim they've made some kind of conclusive discovery that applies to everyone outside of the sample group. Unless this study leads to change or another longer and more conclusive study, the results mean nothing.
Regardless of what sex you are, nobody should be getting left behind. If it is true that boys learn differently to girls, then adjust the curriculum to make it more flexible for different learning styles. When I went to school I struggled, not because I am stupid or because I am a male, I struggled because the curriculum assumed everyone learns the same way and when I couldn't fit myself within the mould, I got left behind and taught myself everything I needed to know. Everyone learns differently, we are not all the same.
Sorry for getting worked up, Studies like this do nothing to help resolve gender equality gaps whatsoever.