Gender and Students’ Perceptions of Career Aspirations in Secondary schools

Abstract

Enrolment in courses leading to certain careers like engineering, architecture and technology in
Kenya, revealed that female students were underrepresented in these courses. Males dominated in
most courses except in education, home economics, nursing and secretarial studies. It was
hypothesized that career aspirations were gender related. The purpose of the study was to determine
the career each male and female secondary school student in Kisumu Municipality aspires for. The
findings of the study will hopefully contribute to knowledge in the area of gender studies and career
guidance. The study used descriptive survey design. The study population consisted of 1596
students in Kisumu Municipality. Purposive sampling was used to select 8 public secondary schools
that were likely to have a combination of students with different abilities and therefore likely to have
different career aspirations. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a representative
sample of 237 male, 238 female students and 8 teachers heading career guidance department in the
selected schools. Data were collected using student questionnaires and interview schedules.
Descriptive and chi-square statistics were used to analyze the relationships between the gender of the
students and their career aspirations. Findings of the study indicated that there was gender disparity
in career aspirations of secondary school students in Kisumu Municipality. The relationship between
students’ career aspirations and their gender was found to be statistically significant.