This paper examines the implications of the relationship between two contemporary international trends in education for women's equality as citizens. The first trend is that in most Western countries girls are now achieving statistically, slightly better, average school-leaving results than boys, and occasioning a hostile populist backlash against this success. The second trend is the revival of interest in participatory democratic theory reflected in the current focus on civics and citizenship education in education systems. The paper addresses the specific question of what happens to the social and educational order when girls begin to gain access to the traditional masculine public spheres of male-dominated curriculum areas. It considers the implications of this greater access for both girls and boys as learner-citizens, arguing that in the present international climate it is impossible for girls to be equal with boys as learner-citizens. Girls remain adjuncts to male learner-citizens. According to the paper, the two trends are contradictory, positioning girls within a dialectic of desire and threat in their quests for citizenship. The paper begins with an overview of the theoretical literature on the gendered nature of citizenship and its relevance to gender and citizenship education as a field of study. It describes what has developed into an international backlash against girls' alleged success in education, and goes on to analyze the exact nature of this success. The paper argues that the backlash is fueled by two rhetorical shifts in the discourses of disadvantage relating to both boys and girls. Finally, it discusses the public taboos and private imperatives which operate to circumscribe girls' desires to be equal learner-citizens with boys. (Contains 62 references.) (BT)