Gender Differences in Participation in Elective Mathematics of Senior Secondary School Students in Ghana

This paper aims at contributing to the body of knowledge that exists in the area of differences in participation in elective mathematics, between boys and girls in Secondary Schools in Ghana. A sample of 738 respondents from five Secondary Schools was purposively selected using purposive sampling technique. All the respondents were final year students and had studied extensively more than a half of the elective mathematics syllabus. The selected schools were made up of two single-sex female schools, one single-sex male school and one mixed-sex schools from Cape Coast municipality in the central region and one mixed-sex school, from Sekondi in the western region of Ghana. Relevant data were gathered using a set of questionnaire and an interview schedule prepared by the researchers. The analysis of the personal interviews with some of the female respondents revealed various reasons why some females were attracted to the study of elective mathematics. The study revealed that the participation of males in elective mathematics was 50.5% while that of females was 27.2% giving an indication that females participated in elective mathematics less often than their male counterparts. Suggestions for increasing female participation in senior secondary school elective mathematics were made and areas for further research on the topic have also been suggested.