Boys And Girls In Science: Does The Gender Composition Of The School Matter?

Abstract

The study was designed to find out the influence of the gender composition of the schools students attend on their selection of the physical and applied sciences for their college majors. Consistent with several previous studies, this study also shows that boys are more likely than girls to choose their majors from these subject areas. Furthermore, the boys in the single-sex schools are more likely than any other group to choose physical or applied science majors in Ghana. Contrary to previous studies, however, girls in mixed-sex schools appear to be slightly more likely than their counterparts in single-sex schools to choose physical and applied science majors. The implications of the findings are discussed.