Gender, Self-concept and Mathematics and Science Performance of South African Grade 9 Students
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP11/2017Publication date: October 2017
Author(s):
Despite improvements over the past decade, South African women continue to be underrepresented in tertiary studies and professional careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. This has implications not only for economic development and growth, but also for social inequality as women continue to have lower access to higher paying employment opportunities. Using data from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study of 2011, this paper finds that whilst grade 9 girls in the poorest 80% of South African schools experience no difference in domain-specific performance, self-concept and motivation, girls in the wealthiest subset of schools are found to significantly underperform in both subjects, as well as possess lower self-concept and motivation, and higher anxiety. Teacher gender and education are shown to correlate with these results; specifically, female teachers with math backgrounds negatively influence girls’ performances in wealthy schools. This is argued to be in keeping with stereotype threat theory (Steele, 2003) whereby women that are highly identified with math are subject to greater anxiety and concern over their performance. The relative difference in the performance of girls taught by a female versus a male teacher compared to the performance of boys is smaller when exposed to teachers with education training, suggesting that classroom methodology plays a role in the attainment of girls. Student fixed effects estimation reveals that the teacher characteristics mentioned above play important roles for moderating the relationship between student self-concept and performance of boys and girls.
JEL Classification:C21, I21, I24, J16
Keywords:gender inequality, STEM, stereotype, performance, self-concept, development
Download: PDF (1.5 MB)Login
(for staff & registered students)
Upcoming Seminars
Monday 13 October 202512:10-13:10
Prof Euan Phimister: Stellenbosch Business School
Topic: "TBA"
12:10-13:10
Dr Friedrich Kreuser: Stellenbosch University
Topic: "Allocative Efficiency, Labour Shares, and Corporate Lobbying in European Manufacturing"
12:10-13:10
Prof Masashige Hamano: Waseda University
Topic: "TBA"
BER Weekly
26 Sep 2025 Free Weekly Review | Number 37 | 26 SeptemberThis report covers the key domestic and international data releases over the past week. The more comprehensive BER Weekly Review (Enhanced Version) includes a detailed discussion on the main economic events and developments over the past week, a summary of upcoming data (the week ahead) and the BER’s forecast for key economic indicators....
Read the full issue
Upcoming Seminars
Monday 13 October 202512:10-13:10
Prof Euan Phimister: Stellenbosch Business School
Topic: "TBA"
12:10-13:10
Dr Friedrich Kreuser: Stellenbosch University
Topic: "Allocative Efficiency, Labour Shares, and Corporate Lobbying in European Manufacturing"
12:10-13:10
Prof Masashige Hamano: Waseda University
Topic: "TBA"
BER Weekly
26 Sep 2025 Free Weekly Review | Number 37 | 26 SeptemberThis report covers the key domestic and international data releases over the past week. The more comprehensive BER Weekly Review (Enhanced Version) includes a detailed discussion on the main economic events and developments over the past week, a summary of upcoming data (the week ahead) and the BER’s forecast for key economic indicators....
Read the full issue