Gender Bias and Curriculum

Review of Research on Gender Bias in the Curriculum

For more than 4 decades, researchers have conducted studies to document how males and females are portrayed in the curriculum. In a landmark 1975 study, “Dick and Jane as Victims,” researchers studied 2,760 stories in 134 elementary texts and readers, looking at the pictures, stories, and language used to describe male and female characters and found the following ratios:

Researchers also reviewed award-winning children's literature—Caldecott winners from 1953 through 1971. These picture books, chosen as the best of the year by the American Library Association, had 11 times as many boys and men pictured as girls and women. When girls and women were included, they were typecast: They looked in mirrors, watched boys, cried, needed help, served others, gave up, betrayed secrets, acted selfishly, and waited to be rescued. Men were involved in 150 different jobs, but most women were housewives. Most women who worked outside the home were teachers or nurses.

The negative publicity over sexist books surprised many school textbook publishers. In the 1970s and 1980s, textbook companies and professional associations, such as the American Psychological Association and the National Council for Teachers of English, issued guidelines for nonracist and nonsexist books, suggesting how to include and fairly portray different groups in the curriculum.

Current research indicates that these efforts improved, but did not totally eliminate gender bias in the school curriculum. Females now appear more often in contemporary textbooks and children's literature, are more likely to demonstrate traditional male traits such as assertiveness and athleticism, and enjoy more career options. Yet problems persist. No matter the subject, the names and experiences of males continue to dominate the pages of the school curriculum. Men are seen as the creators of history, scientists of achievement, and political leaders. Boys are routinely shown as active, creative, brave, athletic, achieving, and curious. In striking contrast, girls are often portrayed as dependent, passive, fearful, docile, and even victims, with a limited role in or impact on the world.

Even in subjects considered somewhat neutral, such as mathematics, gender bias persists. For example, in a study of elementary mathematics software, only 12% of the characters were female. In their limited appearances, most were presented as mothers and princesses. Male characters, on the other hand, were active workers in a variety of occupations, such as heavy equipment operators, factory workers, shopkeepers, mountain climbers, hang gliders, garage mechanics, and even as a genie providing directions. Such gender imbalances are found across the curriculum.

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