A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SEX ROLE STEREOTYPING IN THIRD GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES TEXTBOOKS

NANCY A BULGER, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ascertain how sex roles presented in third grade social studies textbooks adopted in 1980 changed, if at all, from those presented in comparable 1970 publications. Both text and pictures were examined to determine whether sex role stereotyping in the social studies curriculum decreased significantly in the years from 1970 to 1980. Specifically, the study examined the differences in: the number of males and females portrayed; the roles in which characters were presented (primary or secondary); the types of races in which characters were depicted; the types of environments in which characters were portrayed; the occurrence of specific behaviors exhibited by males and females; the number and variety of occupational roles in which males and females were portrayed; and the number and ratio of appropriate and inappropriate language references. The sample consisted of twelve third grade social studies textbooks which were adopted in the State of Indiana. Six textbooks were adopted in 1980 and six in 1970. The research process consisted of a content analysis of the presence or absence of sex role stereotyping in illustrations and text. Specifically, seven major groupings of hypotheses (sex distribution, primary and secondary role, race environment, behavior, occupation; and language references) postulating no change were considered for statistical evaluation. Overall, there was much improvement in the unbiased or unstereotyped presentation of males and females in the decade between 1970 and 1980, as evidenced in the textbooks studied. For one, the number of male and female characters illustrated changed dramatically over the decade, drawing much closer to equality and to their proportions in the population at large. Just as dramatically, bias in language references was reduced to the point of near elimination in several categories: references to humanity, parallel language/unparallel language, job titles, and pronouns related to work occupation. However, some categories of occupational illustrations give cause for concern. The most disturbing one concerns the presentation of characters in clerical roles because the direction of change was one towards increasing bias towards females. Another area for concern is the distribution of male and female characters in primary and secondary roles. While the number of male and female characters evened out in 1980, their distribution in primary to secondary roles diverge. There was a significant bias towards presenting males rather than females in primary roles in 1980.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Social studies education

COinS