Data that were originally gathered during the 1978-1990, 1994, and 1996 Scottish School Leavers Surveys were subjected to a secondary analysis to identify the qualifications, characteristics, and choices of high-attaining female school leavers. The analysis revealed that female and male high-attaining school leavers had broadly similar average qualifications, and most of them went on to further full-time study. However, males generally opted for more stereotypically "male" subjects such as engineering, technology, mathematics, and computing, while females generally chose more people-oriented subjects such as education, languages, and biological sciences. Those subject choices had an important impact on male and female school leavers' later attainment and opportunities. Female high-attainers generally outnumbered male high-attainers; however, the gap narrowed in later years of schooling. The study confirmed the relationship between social advantage and high attainment for students of both genders. The fact that girls appeared to take school more seriously than boys did appeared to be the only factor that could explain differences in males' and females' academic attainment. (Twenty-seven tables/figures are included. The bibliography contains 30 references. Appended is a table detailing responses to survey questions about parents' involvement in the secondary education of their high- and low-achieving male and female children.) (MN)