Identifying and Combating Sexism in EFL Textbooks

—with a case study into China

Tao, Baiqiang

Independent Researcher, P R China

Document Date: July 15, 2008

About the author: Mr. Tao Baiqiang, born in Chongqing in 1971, a master of

Southwest China University, is an independent researcher (TEFL and English

language Testing) , People’s Republic of China with over a decade’s experience of

TEFL and language testing practice in China. His research interests are language

testing and EFL education. The author can be contacted at [email protected] or

[email protected] .

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 Identifying and Combating Sexism in EFL Textbooks

—with a case study into China

【Abstract】 This paper explores methodologies of identifying and combating

sexism in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks. The writer of this paper

has found out there exists sexism or gender inequality in the Chinese high school EFL

textbooks. The writer hopes that future EFL curriculum designers, EFL textbook

writers, textbook censors in textbook censorship states, and evaluation panel members

accumulate gender equality awareness in both substantive contents and linguistic

forms and make every effort to minimize or avoid sex bias in EFL textbooks. In light

of a review upon works in related fields, this paper discusses how to identify sexism

in EFL textbooks with a case study into the EFL textbooks for China’s senior high

school students and hereafter recommends feasible strategies combating sexism in

FFL textbooks.

【Key words】EFL textbook, sexism, gender inequality, China

Introduction

One of the major issues in sociolinguistic research is the relationship between

sex and language and how it is represented in language. The study of language and

gender prevailed in 1975 with the publication of three books：Male/Female Language

(Key 1975), Language and Women's Place (Lakoff 1975), and Difference and

Dominance (Thorne & Henley 1975)，which have continued to have exerted lasting

influence upon later sociolinguistic works. Since then, sociolinguists have shown

intense interest in sex and language relationship (Ansary & Babaii 2003).

Fennema (1990) defines gender equity as a set of behaviors and knowledge that

permits educators to recognize inequality in educational opportunities, to carry out

specific interventions that constitute equal educational treatment, and ensure equal

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educational outcomes. Because curriculum materials that are biased in language,

content, or illustrations reinforce the stereotyped idea that some fields are gender

specific, EFL researchers and teachers need to learn to observe the usually subtle but

powerful “cumulative impact” of EFL materials on learners’ understanding of sex

roles. Due to deficiency in EFL resources and traditional exam-oriented classroom

practice in some EFL countries, it is estimated that 95 per cent of EFL classroom time

is related to textbooks which have hence been used and repeatedly studied as

canonical EFL materials. In some countries, attention is mainly paid to females’ equal

access to education whereas adequate attention to hidden sexism in educational

micro-environment such as textbook development and classroom atmosphere is yet to

be desired from various government and education administrations.

The status quo of gender inequality represented in EFL textbooks stimulates the

writer to explore into gender inequality in textbooks and hope to highlight measures

to forestall covert sexism in future EFL textbooks.

Literature review

The new wave of feminist campaigns in the western countries in the 1960s

triggered research into gender inequality in textbooks in the early 1970s and since

then relevant studies of sexism in ESL/EFL textbooks have become prevalent.

Hartman & Judd studied several popular TESOL textbooks and examined the

images of women and men, firstness, and stereotyped roles for females and males.

They demonstrated that "since sexist usage is built into our language (English), it is

little wonder that textbooks, including ESL texts, model this usage to the

students"( Hartman & Judd 1978:390). They believe sexist attitudes and values

“reinforce the second-place status of women and could, with only a little effort, be

avoided” (ibid: 390).

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 Hellinger (1980), a native German, conducted a study of 131 passages from

three ELT textbooks used in German schools. She found that men participated in over

93% of the passages, while less than 30% of the texts included women. In addition, it

was mentioned that 80% of the speakers were males and that women were rarely

engaged in any "demanding, interesting, or successful" activities, whilst male roles

represented a broad range of occupational choice.

Porreca investigated how sexism existed in ESL textbooks and its

consequences. In an analysis of 15 widely-used ESL textbooks, she focused on (1)

omission (the ratio of females to males) in texts and illustrations, (2) firstness, (3)

occupations, (4) the frequency of male nouns to female nouns, (5) female-exclusive

masculine generic constructions, and (6) the types and frequency of adjectives for

men and women. In every category of her study, she found that "there is evidence that

sexism continues to flourish in ESL textbooks" (Porreca 1984: 718).

In his analysis of current Iranian high school EFL textbooks, Davoodi (1999)

showed that "of the total pictures of male (sic.) and females represented, 59.48% are

male (sic.), 26.72% are female (sic.)." This, he believes, is "an indication of strong

prejudice against women."

Research into textbook gender inequality in China lags

behind that in western countries, with some Chinese research papers published as

late as in the 1990s. Ma (1991) focused on the images and roles of fathers in

Chinese-language and social studies textbooks at Hong Kong kindergarten and

primary levels. Women in PRC Chinese-language textbooks (Nan 1992) are found

to play less important work roles. In the textbooks that Nan examined, all scientists,

artists, experts, and scholars are males, which are similar to overseas research results.

Porreca (1984) found that most frequently mentioned occupations for male

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 characters were president (111 times), writer (59), teacher (43), policeman and

explorer (41). The most frequently mentioned occupations for females were teacher

(28), actress (22), doctor (16), and secretary (13).

Zhu (1994), Zeng (1995), Jin (2000), Shi (2002), Yang & Lv (2002), Zhang &

Yang (2003) in China continuously researched into gender inequality in Chinese

primary school or secondary school textbooks and obtained similar results as foreign

researchers did. The sexism-related researches carried out by Chinese scholars are

mostly based on primary or secondary Chinese language textbooks.

Identifying sexism in EFL textbooks

—with a case study into China’s EFL textbooks

According to previous research into sexism in textbooks, in general, there are

four primary aspects to be scrutinized pertaining to whether the EFL textbooks have

violated the principle of gender equality in EFL textbooks. Here follows a case study

into the China’s EFL textbooks designed for senior high school students in order to

illustrate how to identify sexism in EFL textbooks. English is a compulsory subject

for senior high school students and has been included in the high stakes college

entrance examinations in China since 1983. This case study examines the five English

textbooks designed for senior high school students in China (Senior English for China,

hereafter abbreviated as SEFC) financed by United Nations Development Program

(UNDP), and published in succession from 1996 on and jointly compiled by Longman

Group and the People’s Education Press of China which almost monopolizes the K-12

instruction materials from the founding of PRC until the commencement of the 21st

century. The life of this series of SEFC lasted from September 1996 to June 2005

when the new national curriculum reform gained momentum. During the past

approximately ten years, about 40 million students used the series of the textbooks

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(calculated from statistics in National Bureau of Statistics of China 2003: 717. In

2002 senior high school student enrollment is 16.838 million). China National

Population Census in 2000 indicated that male/female sex ratio is 106.74 (ibid: 99),

which set the sex ratio in senior high school students accordingly.

SEFC contains 5 books, namely SEFC 1A and SEFC 1B for first graders, SEFC

2A and SEFC 2B for second graders and SEFC 3 for seniors, with 74 units in all, one

text in each unit.

A. Visibility

Visibility refers to the frequency of female representation against male

representation. Visibility is embedded in the following four facets: protagonists,

historical figures assuming protagonists’ roles or being mentioned, female /male

appearance in unit titles and illustrations.

1 Protagonists: The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often

referred as a story's main character. Frequently the story is told from the protagonist's

point of view; even when not in first-person narration, the protagonist's attitudes and

actions are made clear to the reader or listener to a larger extent than for any other

character. Is there a balance between female and male protagonists? Data collected in

74 texts of SEFC have revealed that male protagonists with full names are 27. In

contrast, 6 protagonists are females with one female protagonist bearing no name but

hinted as female in a journal log, one labeled as Mrs. Cousins. Only 2 female figures

really lived in history.

2 Historical figures assuming protagonists’ roles or being mentioned

Historical figures in textbooks facilitate students’ sex role socialization and act

as role models for students. There are lots of social psychology studies that show

learners’ imaginations are limited by the models they are presented with through texts.

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 In her description of omission, Porreca (1984: 706) states that: ‘When females

do not appear as often as males in the text, the implicit message is that women’s

accomplishments … are not enough to be included.’ She cites an earlier study by

Hartman and Judd (1978) whose findings support this as well. ‘In several of the texts

reviewed, women suffered most obviously from low visibility (p. 384).’ This has ill

effects on learners. Sunderland (1992:86) notes that:

If female learners are conscious of the female characters in their course

book as relatively few, with limited roles, and are offended, alienated, or

made to feel marginalized by this and subsequently demotivated, this is

more likely to hinder than facilitate their learning.

Therefore EFL textbooks should reflect both female and male historical figures

and thus stimulate females’ enthusiasm to contribute to the development of society in

future.

However, in SEFC, male historical figures dominate the series of textbooks

with 18 male historical figures, i.e. Christopher Columbus, Carl Lewis, John Denvor,

Abraham Lincoln, Carl Marx, Jia Sixie (Chinese agriculturist), Bob Geldof, Walt

Disney, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Stephen Hawking,

Charlie Dickens, Shakespeare, Captain Cook (viz. Frederick Albert Cook), Francis

Bacon, Mohandas Gandhi and Karl von Frisch.

Included in the texts are only 4 female historical figures, i.e. Madam Curie,

Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller, and Florence Nightingale.

3. Male/Female appearance in unit titles

Laid in prominent positions in the textbooks, unit titles are eye-catching. Is

there also imbalance between the two sexes in unit titles?

The writer has found 7 males in 7 unit titles i.e. Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx,

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Charlie Chapin, Albert Einstein, Captain Cook, A Person of Great Determination and

Gandhi. In sharp contrast, only 1 female is found in 1 unit title i.e. Madame Curie.

4 Illustrations

Illustrations with female subjects further reinforce the biased labor division,

stereotyped family or work roles and activities in EFL textbooks. Two pictures in page

34 SEFC 1A, page 19 SEFC 3 reflect labor division bias—females acting as waiter,

air ticket sales clerk. Two pictures (p5 SEFC 1B, p45 SEFC 2A) depict females

cooking in the kitchen while none for males in the kitchen. As for activities, two

pictures illustrate females shopping for clothes (p55 SEFC 2A, p28 SEFC 2B). One

exception is a picture (p37 SEFC 1A) that shows females competing in a relay race

and playing basketball. In contrast, males are illustrated being involving in outdoor

activities which are adventurous and achievement-oriented or they are associated with

respectable professions.

B. Occupational and family roles

1 Occupational roles

Male occupational roles cover a much wider range which are demanding,

adventurous, high-paying, respectable, etc. such as explorer, physicist, politician,

writer, poet, agriculturist, athlete, famous singer, film producer, musician, actor, etc.

Conversely, female occupational roles are confined to such office-related clerks as

typist, doctor, nurse, teacher, cook, cleaner, shop assistant, waiter, etc. In Unit 19

SEFC 1B the text describes a woman engineer who faces the risk of losing her job

after her real sex is revealed in a medical operation. Also in the above mentioned

unit’s speaking task, students are required to discuss the work which men and women

do in China. As follows:

Speaker A:

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 are better at making
I’m sure
computers.
I think
work harder than
I guess
men are better doctors women.
It seems
are better teachers
I believe
are more interested than men.
In my
women in science
opinion
are stronger

Speaker B:

I agree. /D you think so? /I don’t agree.

The above discussion task virtually intensifies the sex-biased occupation

division. Emphasizing such differences (for example, the so-called "essentialists"

believe that females are naturally more cooperative, nurturing, caring, and

peace-loving than men) can perpetuate stereotypes and pose a threat to women's

opportunities, giving ammunition to those who would exclude women from certain

jobs, for instance ( Haruhiko 1998:63).

2 Family roles

Sexism may be represented in family role distribution, for instance, the

females are confined to family roles only as babysitter, dish washer, clothes washer,

cook in the kitchen, etc.

Female cooking is somewhat over-represented in SEFC. Dialogues or texts in

Unit 16 SEFC 1B, unit 8 SEFC 1A, Unit 8 SEFC 2A and Unit 10 SEFC 2A mention

female’s family role as cook. In the dialogue of Unit 8 SEFC 2A, a badly hurt girl

cyclist says to Susan: “I ought to go home. I have to cook supper for my

grandmother” although she is unable to move and lying on the road. This coincides

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with the Japanese tradition when Hendry says, “the duty of care within the family

falls almost automatically to women, whether it be in times of sickness, injury or

senility” (Hendry 1987:5).

C. Attributions

Attributions refer to characteristics imposed upon females or males. Some

feminine traits may appear as sexist attitudes against females, who are often

described as incapable, dependent, gentle, effeminate, sissy, appearance sensitive,

gossipy.

Firstly, in SEFC, females are described as motherly characters: kind, patient

and caring in Unit 17 SEFC 3 (Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s tutor) and Unit 13

SEFC 1A (Lincoln’s mother). Secondly, females are imposed with inferiority or

dependence on males, for instance, when learning difficulty occurs in a dialogue,

the help or advice beggar is often a female English learner while males offer

assistance (Unit 12 SEFC 1A, Unit 14 SEFC 1A, Unit 21 SEFC 1B). Thirdly,

females’ excessive concern with appearance may be testified by the following 2

utterances from Mother and Mrs. White.

Mother: “Look at your clothes! Where have you been?”(Quoted: p61 Unit 11

SEFC 2A)

Mrs. White: “You’d better take a hat. The sunshine will burn you if you’re

not careful.”(Quoted: p33 unit 23 SEFC 1B)

The above accords with the conclusion drawn by a Hong Kong scholar (Ma，

1991). Female concern for appearance may help to explain why females enjoy

shopping for clothes.

In addition, the text in Unit 18 SEFC The necklace written by French writer

Guy de Maupassant satirizes the peacockish female character Mathilde.

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 One exception occurs in the text of Unit 11 SEFC 3 The Merchant of Venis,

originally written by Shakespeare; a female character Portia is bestowed with

wittiness when arguing with cruel and greedy Shylock at court.

D. Linguistic analysis

1 Firstness: A perspective introduced by Porreca that relates to the avoidance

of the use of the masculine generic is firstness. By placing the masculine pronoun in

front of the female, male dominance is again displayed. This “reinforces the second

place status of women and could, with only a little effort, be avoided by mixing the

order” (Hartman and Judd 1975: 390). In Unit 8 SEFC 2A males are always

mentioned first: himself/herself, he/she, and he/she.

Other examples of firstness were also observed in bi-sex-related noun pairs,

such as uncle and aunt, brother and sister, boys and girls.

2 Marked for females while unmarked for males

Professional titles mostly reflect males as the default or unmarked sex but are

marked for females，for instance, woman driver is a marked professional title. Unit 19,

SEFC 1B contains some of such marked professional titles such as women doctors,

women police officers.

3 Masculine generic conception: Examine whether male-marked compound

words are employed when referring to both sexes. On page 48 SEFC 2B “man-made”

is suggested to be replaced by “artificial” to avoid lexical sexism.

Combating sexism in EFL textbooks

Sexism results in considerable negative consequences, which may contribute

to inappropriate attribution according to attribution theory in psychology. Fortunately,

some countries or districts have taken fruitful action to minimize or avoid gender

inequality in EFL textbooks and to further ameliorate education microenvironment in

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terms of gender equality.

In the United States, Title IX, an amendment to The Higher Education Act in

1972, bars discrimination “under any education program or activity receiving federal

financial assistance.” Because most K-12 schools benefit from US government aid in

some form, Title IX applies to them as well. Consequently, schools began offering

more athletic programs for girls, selected textbooks and other materials that promoted

gender equality, and opened up enrollment in traditionally male-oriented vocational

programs (Lewis, 2000).

In Asia, the Japanese government enacted The Japanese Gender-Equal Society

Law in 1999.

In practice, some TEFL textbook writers have tried to better balance both
sexes in TEFL textbooks, for instance, Master candidate Liliana M. Dominguez (2003)
in University of Birmingham examined how New Interchange Intro (Student Book),
written by Jack C. Richards, (Cambridge University Press, 2000) represents men and
women. The researcher discussed gender representation in the series of TEFL
textbooks in four aspects: Male and Female characters, occupational roles, amount of
talk, male and female in illustrations, and concluded that the author of this text, Jack
C. Richards does not appear to present any sexist bias throughout the book.
In order to obliterate sexism in EFL textbooks the writer suggests the following

measures to be jointly and comprehensively implemented by the government, EFL

textbook experts, EFL practitioners, and others from various walks of life in society.

Firstly, the legislature should enact laws to defense gender equality in

micro-education environment including EFL textbook compiling, censoring (if there

exists such textbook censorship as in China) and selecting.

Secondly, the awareness of gender equality should be nurtured and valued from

government to education practitioners. When a textbook writer is focusing on the EFL

content, gender imbalance might subconsciously “sneak in”. Only with gender

equality awareness can such subconscious sexism be probably hedged.

Thirdly, in practice, the principle of gender equality should be taken into

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consideration in EFL curriculum planning and designing, EFL textbook designing,

censoring (if censorship exists) and selecting. Government-appointed or private

textbook editing board and censorship (if any) are strongly suggested to appoint some

female experts or sociolinguists to ensure gender equality in EFL textbooks.

Though this paper focuses upon sexism in EFL textbooks, de facto there does

exist sexism in EFL classrooms and EFL testing. The writer hopes each positive

action can be taken so that sexism will be eliminated in EFL education

microenvironment with a fair and impartial attitude to each individual regardless of

sex.

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