Normalised heteropatriachy and performance disparity among male and female students in Senior High Schools

• ender discriminatory ideologies are entrenched in Northwestern Ghana • Female students are often involved in house chores at home while their male colleagues concentrate on their studies • Many parents socialised their female children to velarise marriage over careers • Female students are made to believe that difficult tasks are meant for boys • Female students are less likely to dedicate time to learning subjects they consider difficult since they may not venture in the any STEM professions • Male students are poised to outperform their female counterparts in mathematics since they are made to believe that it is masculine to accomplish difficult tasks. In the field of educational science, scholars have often alluded to the issues of gender disparity in enrolment, transition and completion as well as general academic performance. Yet, the extent to which deeply entrenched heteropatriarchal practices and ideologies intersect to prompt varied academic outcomes for male and female students in mathematics is often overlooked. Investigating this phenomenon amongst a least studied population of senior high school students and within a highly heteropatriarchal society like the Upper West region provided new insights that not just contributes to existing literature but also informs policy formulation. A qualitative approach was employed where 70 participants were recruited for the study using a maximum variation and expert purposive sampling techniques. Primary data were gathered through interviews and focus group discussions and these were complemented by secondary data from school reports as well as reports from the West African Examination Council. The analysis of the collected data revealed that normalised heteropatriarchal ideologies, reinforced through gender role differentiation, male dominance, sexual harassment, religious teachings on marriage, social stereotypes, and parental preferences for male children, contribute to gender disparities in mathematics performance. The study contributes new knowledge to literature by connecting normalised gender discriminatory practices to performance parity between male and female students in mathematics arguing that male students are poised to outperform their female counterparts for as long as culturally entrenched gender discriminatory practices and ideologies continue to favour them.