The representation of gender in junior secondary ELT textbooks in Hong Kong

Abstract

It is argued that the gender bias in textbooks can influence students’ development of values and attitudes (e.g. Lee & Collins, 2008, 2010; Sunderland, 1997; Yang, 2011). Despite continuous improvement, gender stereotyping was found in previous studies in different parts of the world (e.g. Evans & Davies, 2000; Lee & Collins, 2008). The aim of the present study is to analyse the gender representation in the ELT textbooks used by junior secondary students in Hong Kong. The content, language and illustrations of two sets of ELT textbooks were examined. Improvements of gender representation were found as compared with the results in previous studies. The findings show a more balanced representation of males and females in terms of their visibility in both texts and illustrations. Females no longer dominate domestic settings and they no longer speak less in an inferior status. However, gender bias of different forms was still found. Females still play a wider range of domestic roles and a narrower range of social roles. There is also a tendency for females to be mentioned after males when two nouns were paired for gender. It was also found that texts and illustrations are good partners in building up gender bias because they supplement and reinforce the gender bias shown in each other. In addition, new strategies of using unisex names and pseudonyms for avoiding gender imbalance in language were found.