A study on gender representation in EFL

This study analyzed the treatment of gender roles in grade 9 and 10 EFL textbooks in Ethiopia. To this end, systematic quantitative and qualitative analysis were made to examine the way the two sexes were depicted in the textbooks. The first quantitative analysis was made with reference to visibility or frequency of appearances of sexes in texts and illustrations. Secondly, qualitative and quantitative inquiry was carried out into (a) portrayal of characters in occupational roles, b) depiction of sex based activity types (c) portrayals of property ownership and leadership roles of characters, (d) types of adjectives that modify or describe each sex, and (e) pegging of sexist languages in texts and other contents. In order to check whether EFL teachers and students are aware of gender based treatments in the textbook/s they used, questionnaires were dispatched and results were analyzed. The overall results of the content analysis revealed that both textbooks favor males across almost all categories used in the content analysis except in domestic or family roles where females were the majority. As a result, more males were portrayed in named, unnamed and illustrated forms.