Textbooks not inclusive: roles are stereotypical, heterosexuality is the norm
Mum works in healthcare, dad in engineering and everyone is straight: many textbooks still show men and women in stereotypical roles, PhD candidate Tessa van de Rozenberg has discovered. She also found that children’s views on these topics often closely resemble those of their parents.
Van de Rozenberg studied 25 Dutch textbooks for first-year secondary school students: 13 for the subject of Dutch and 12 for maths. Of the nearly 12,000 characters in the books, less than half were women: an average of 40% in the Dutch and 44% in the maths textbooks. ‘All the textbooks in the study contained gender stereotypes’, says Van de Rozenberg. ‘Women are overrepresented in caring and domestic tasks, while men are overrepresented in jobs in science, technology and maths. And we didn’t find a gay, lesbian, non-binary or bi+ character in one single book.’
‘Children are a bit like gender detectives’
More variety needed
Van de Rozenberg calls for more variety in textbooks, ‘Include many more groups in all kinds of different jobs, roles and activities. Give examples of everyday situations that everyone can relate to.’ For example, a sentence like: Sam’s fathers take care of their ill neighbours. Or: Samira’s mother teaches chemistry. Van de Rozenberg and colleagues have already designed a digital guide for publishers: Hulpmiddel voor meer inclusieve schooboeken (Toolkit for more-inclusive textbooks).
‘Children are a bit like gender detectives’, she notes. ‘Everywhere they look they find clues about gender and preferences, and these help them make sense of the world. Once they get the message that certain activities, interests, behaviours or occupations are assigned more often to women, they categorise these as “female” in their gender schemes.’ This is how traditional gender roles remain dominant.
Views of parents and children
In another study, Van de Rozenberg examined socialisation − the transmission of norms − within 500 families. She looked at young people’s attitudes and interests towards jobs and tasks in health care, primary education and the home. Unsurprisingly, the more stereotypical the boys’ views on these occupations were, the less their interest in them. For girls, the opposite was true: if they thought these were typical female occupations, they also found them more interesting. In addition, children were more likely to attribute that kind of work and tasks to women if their parents felt the same way.
Like father like son
In another study, Van de Rozenberg examined socialisation − the transmission of norms − within 500 families. She looked at young people’s attitudes and interests towards jobs and tasks in health care, primary education and the home. Unsurprisingly, the more stereotypical the boys’ views on these occupations were, the less their interest in them. For girls, the opposite was true: if they thought these were typical female occupations, they also found them more interesting. In addition, children were more likely to attribute that kind of work and tasks to women if their parents felt the same way.
Tessa van de Rozenberg will receive her doctorate on 19 December for her dissertation Heteronormativity and Gender Norms. Watch the live stream from 15.00.
Text: Linda van Putten
Photo: Becca Tatert/Unsplash