This article seeks to understand why it is that many girls (relative to boys) experience difficulties when they are required to speak in formal, public or unfamiliar contexts. While girls are recognised to be good at using collaborative talk in small groups, it is still the public voice that is valorised in the world outside school. Thus, the current debate in Britain on underachieving boys is reviewed in the light of the discrepancy between what constitutes success in school, and what constitutes success in the adult world. Furthermore, language and gender research has tended to characterise the predominantly male, public voice as competitive, ego-enhancing and hegemonic. Yet the new generation of British GCSE syllabuses for English redefines this public voice in ways that might be empowering and enhancing for girls in their future lives. The issue for educators is how to encourage girls to acquire skills that are culturally coded as 'masculine'.
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