BOYS run rather than walk, and shout rather than talk; but you know where you are with them.

So I was told by a mother of three daughters and two sons (born in that order) as we discussed the various merits - and otherwise - of boys and girls.

Most of my closest friends have sons who regularly come round to play so I've been able to observe at first hand the differences - and whatever people say, they do exist. Boys are louder, more boisterous, more physical. Where girls dress as princesses and role play, boys don masks, pick up toy swords and play-fight.

In museums, girls will quietly sit and draw pictures while boys want to keep moving. They are more interested in the hands-on approach, using their bodily skills and strengths to make things happen. I know I'm generalising and, of course, there are exceptions. But I haven't imagined this - I've seen it time and again.

And a study by scientists at America's University of Minnesota has confirmed it. Granted, the research was based upon the behaviour of male and female chimps, but it reinforced the theory that while boys concentrate on fighting, playing and grunting, girls focus on chatting, watching and learning. "Gender difference begins in the jungle," said the report. "Boys really are little monkeys."

It is by no means the first claim of its type. I remember reading an article by Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray who lambasted all the anti-boy theories, condemned the expression 'boys will be boys' and went on to tell how much of a pleasure her two sons were to raise.

Public perceptions of boys often leave them hard done by. Girls have none-too-desirable traits, too, but in a world of pretty frocks and pigtails these are all too regularly overlooked. I could use the term 'hard work' for my daughters, not in an academic way.

They whine and whinge, whisper (which I hate) and wail. They scowl and sulk and stamp their feet. Unlike boys, they don't come clean and tell you what they want - they cleverly circle around the subject, like the women they will grow into.

Girls blow their tops over trivia. A pen mark made accidentally on another's drawing can trigger a major tantrum. And when one of my daughters is in the dog house, the other comes over all goody two-shoes.

Because girls are often praised for looking sweet, they think they can get away with murder - and frequently do. But boys are no worse than girls, just different. And if the next scientific study on gender differences concentrated on black widow spiders, the balance may be somewhat redressed.