I would like to offer a few thoughts on this and hopefuly worthy of consideration.
In the 1940s I would say that girls were a lot different as to how the are now.
They only saw boys as for what they were and,being girls,had no particular wish to emulate them.
Boys got caned,they did’nt and did’nt expect to be iether.
As time moved on,girls started to ‘come out of their shells’ so as to speak and competed with the boys on an even footing-they even started to dress like them-trousers,shirts and ties for example,and something that inevidably led to the need to cane girls for boyish offences and,I suppose a way of saying-‘that if you act like boys,you’ll get treated like boys’
I personaly was never in favour of caning any girl,particulary on the bottom,but as I implied-times have changed.