Oh yeah, as you already know 10 times over, girls/women are much more in tune with everyone's emotions. So in that regard females ARE much smarter. It's interesting to watch how D9 and her friends struggle with this quality as they develope it and interact with each other. I have an older sister (8 yrs older) so I didn't experience the stuff D9 is going through now. You are right, boys are different. The other day S6 said, "I met <problem child neighbor kid>'s classmate the other day after school. He punched me in the stomach. I almost puked. He's pretty fun to play with." The world would have ended if that happened to D9 but S6 didn't give it a second thought. He shrugged it off and played tag or something with the kid.
It makes me sad (although I should call it a silver lining) that it's taken this stupid sitch for me to sit up and take notice of the many wonderful qualities in my kids.
