Effect of Beliefs and Gender Roles on Girls’ Math Education

In Ghana, a large gender gap in participation exists across fields of study in senior secondary school; in home economics, 89.6% of students are girls while in general science, only 34% are girls (Ministry of Education, 2013). Recent literature suggests that schooling choices of girls are particularly influenced by societal beliefs about their math ability, labor market opportunities, and the role of women in the society (Agbley, 2015; Ajayi and Buessing, 2015). If parents’ and girls’ beliefs result from a lack of information, then providing information about potential math abilities and returns to math education in terms of labor market and family outcomes may increase investments in girls’ math education. We conduct an RCT in Ghana to investigate how providing these different types of information affect parents’ and children’s investments in math education in terms of time, schooling expenditures, girls’ aspirations, secondary school enrollment rate, and the field of study.