Abstract:
This paper assesses the extent to which the attitudes held by boys and girls towards gender role stereotypes have
influences on their performances in Mathematics and Chemistry in secondary schools in Kenya. The study was
based on Erick Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development. Purposive sampling was used to select the schools
that were involved in the study and simple random sampling was used to select the participants of the study. A
sample of 208 students was randomly selected from the form four classes, with an equal ratio of boys to girls. The
main research instruments used were questionnaires and scores for mathematics and chemistry obtained from
school records. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. It was found that there
was no difference in expression of attitude between boys and girls towards gender role stereotypes as well as no
relationship between attitude held toward gender role stereotypes and performance in Mathematics and
Chemistry. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology should organize training of teachers to correct
their gender based attitudes. This would reduce biases based on gender roles held by teachers towards their
students. The findings of the study should help teachers, students, parents and other stakeholder in education to
look at the barriers of gender equity in performance in mathematics and chemistry.