Gender voices in Afghanistan primary and secondary school English textbooks

Abstract

Abstract Textbooks are one of the areas in which gender inequality is institutionalized effortlessly. The study investigated the representation of gender in primary and secondary English textbooks. A total of 14 categories of underrepresentation and misrepresentation were used to examine gender portrayal. The results show that women are significantly underrepresented whilst men are overrepresented in text and illustrations. Female names account for only 30.4% of names in textbooks. Male characters precede female characters in most coordinated phrases, and most of the dialogues are initiated by men. Masculine generic forms are used to refer to women and men including in the English translation of the Afghanistan National Anthem. Men are more frequently portrayed in a myriad of social roles than women are. Surprisingly, this pattern also holds true for domestic roles. Furthermore, little space is dedicated to female famous persons (e.g., scientists), and women constitute a tiny fraction of the main characters of articles and stories, most of which were about trivial matters (e.g., cooking). They are portrayed in a small number of activities, almost a quarter of which are house‐related tasks.

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