Numerous studies have shown that textbooks in the United States were biased against women in the 1960s and later. Textbooks rarely depicted women, and when they did, women were shown as passively subordinate wives and mothers, dependent on men. In the 1970s feminist activists lobbied for textbook reform, especially in Texas. As a result, the intensity of sexism in American textbooks has diminished, though men are still substantially over-represented and sexist portrayals of women persist.
[The earliest study of textbook bias against women occurred in 1946.] [Irvin L.] Child, [Elmer H.] Potter and [Estelle M.] Levine (1960) discovered that primary school textbooks often portrayed females rather negatively and stereo-typically, e.g., as manipulative. Nothing happened. But around 1970, the "second wave women's movement" burst onto the scene. And a lot began to happen. In 1971, activist Marjorie U'Ren published a content analysis of "The Image of Woman in Textbooks" in an iconic feminist reader. She analyzed 30 of the newest textbooks adopted or recommended for use in second to sixth grade California schools. (As discussed below, textbook adoption is done at sub-national level in the U.S.; the biggest states, e.g., California and Texas, have a huge influence on what is published.)
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| SOURCE: www.huffingtonpost.com |
What do you think (leave a comment with your ideas):
Q.1 Why do women have to face prejudice against textbooks?
Q.2 Are textbooks really that significant, that they criticize gender?
Q.3 What can women do in order to stop from all the consequences they face against textbook prejudice?Article: http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&u=hins30136&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010816206
I agree, it turns out that our textbooks are still a bit sexist. One of the most noticeable details is that women are omitted a lot of the time. Almost all of the stories we read are male-driven, with only a brief mention given to the women involved. At least our textbooks aren't blatantly sexist, though. I was reading an article on Buzzfeed about a sex ed. textbook distributed in Singapore and how it was extremely bigoted, endorsing stereotypes and promoting rape culture, stating that sexual assault is usually a woman's fault. Have you noticed that theme in everyday life? There always seems to be a lot of victim blaming surrounding sexual harassment/assault.
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