Reading two Schoolbooks and the female stereotype

Illustrations and stories in United States primary school textbooks tend to convince young girls that they should be passive and dependent creatures who need aspire only to lives of service to their future husbands and children, a conference of educators was told here yesterday.

Speaking at the first national conference on schools and sex role stereotypes, a University of California professor said a study of the 100 most widely used elementary textbooks demonstrated that girls are constantly depicted as dependent on and subservient to boys.

Louise White, of the US Office of Education, told the conference that the female stereotype presented to elementary school children was so overwhelming that by the time most girls reached fourth grade they believed they had only four occupations open to them – nurse, secretary, teacher, or mother.

The director of the elementary school textbook study, Lenore Weitzman, of the University of California, said that texts in spelling, reading, mathematics, science, and social studies were examined.

Most stories and illustrations tended to centre on boys rather than girls, and those boys tended to demonstrate qualities of strength, intelligence, love of adventure, independence, and courage.

Girls, however, were depicted in passive roles. Usually they were inside a house, and often they were helping with housework or playing with dolls.

When boys and girls appeared together in a text, she said, the girls were either watching the boys do something or they were helping the boys.

Adult men appearing in elementary school texts were depicted in various jobs – astronaut, truck driver, policeman, cowboy, scientist, banker – in addition to the role of father.

But the overwhelming picture of women that emerged from the elementary texts was that of mother and housewife. Even at that, said Professor Weitzman, the picture was one of a woman performing simple but time-consuming chores. It failed completely to reflect the complexities facing a modern housewife.

A study was done by an affiliate of the Central New Jersey National Organisation for women on 134 books published by 14 major publishing companies and involving 2,760 stories for elementary school children.

According to the findings the composite housewife or mother was a “limited, colourless, mindless creature... Not only does she wash, cook, clean, nurse, and find mittens: these chores constitute her only happiness”.

“In illustration, she frequently appears in the servant’s posture, body slightly bent forward, hands clasped, eyes riveted on the master of the house or the children”.

In contrast, the typical father found in the study was “the good guyin the family. He’s where the fun is. He builds things with his children and takes them hunting, fishing and up in planes. He solves the problems”.

The effect of this on young girls, Professor Weitzman said, is to make them think their role is to serve others. They think they should be attractive so that they can please others and although they generally have better academic records than boys by the time they reach adolescence, they value academic and scholastic excellence less than boys do.

Report in The Guardian.2002. No. 5.

Language focus

1. Match the adjectives with the nouns they collocate with and translate the word combinations into Russian/Belarusian.

academic	posture
time-consuming	creature
mindless	picture
subservient	record
adventurous	chores
overwhelming	men

2. Find the words in the text which have a similar meaning to the following. Reproduce the situations in which they are used:

• made up of different parts or materials;

• to keep looking at sth;

• to desire and work towards achieving something important;

• too willing to do what other people want them to do;

• a fixed idea or image of what a particular type of person or thing is like;

• the time when a young person is developing into an adult.

3. Explain what is meant by the following word combinations:

• sex role stereotypes;

• servant’s posture;

• eyes riveted on the master of the house;

• academic and scholastic excellence;

• a composite housewife.

4. Complete the spaces by finding one word from your functional vocabulary which fits in all three spaces.

	As a country, we … a lot more than we produce.
	He is able to … vast quantities of food.
	He was … with guilt after the accident.
	It was clear that Mrs. Thatcher … to the leadership of the party.
	At that time, all serious artists … to go to Paris and paint.
	Boys who sought an apprenticeship 20 years ago now … to an engineering degree.

5. Translate from Russian into English. Use your functional vocabulary.

1. Новейшие технические достижения позволяют получать быстрый доступ в Интернет.

2. Джейн решилась на развод, так как муж постоянно унижал ее в присутствии детей.

3. Это была явная ложь, и никто не поверил ни единому слову.

4. На проверку тетрадей уходило очень много времени.

5. Женщины в этой восточной стране не принимают новую европейскую моду.

6. Социологические исследования в разных странах показывают, что около 20 % женщин постоянно подвергаются физическому насилию.

7. Участники встречи единодушно осудили такие проявления угнетения женщин, как сексуальное насилие, убийство женщин из-за приданого и др.

8. Ежегодно от 25 % до 50 % женщин оказываются жертвами насилия в семье.

Speech activities

1. Answer the following questions.

1. Why, according to the text, do American girls grow up thinking that there are only four possible careers open to them?

2. What is the difference in the way boys and girls, men and women are presented in American schoolbooks?

3. Do you agree that a schoolbook can really have a serious impact on children’s perception of sex role stereotypes?

2. Analyse some schoolbooks used in Belarusian schools. In what roles are boys and girls depicted in them? Share your findings with the rest of the group.

Section 2. The Problems of Modern Family

Starter activity

Family is a unit of society. What does family happiness depend on? What makes a good wife/a good husband. How much has the role of a woman in the family changed over the years?