ABSTRACT
Head teachers reinforced social constructions of gender through their gendered expectations for students. Our first interview question asked head teachers about the academic performance of students. The five head teachers
who selected boys as having better academic performance couched their explanations in terms of gender roles and responsibilities. Said one Chhetri man head teacher,
Notably, this head teacher was projecting his own gender bias onto his answer with his statement that girls “don’t feel like going to school.” He assumed the girls felt guilty if they left the housework to go to school. Further, he did not question the socially constructed assignment of housework to girls exclusively rather than to both girls and boys. Also, similar to many community members and parents/guardians, this interviewee referred to daughters’ work at home as “help,” implying that girls had a choice when they were actually obligated to their domestic responsibilities.
