Gendered Illustrations in Philippine Textbooks

Abstract

The role of the textbooks in gender socialization provided the impetus to find out if grade one textbooks used in Philippine public schools contribute to promote gender equality, which are included in the Sustainable Development Goals (UNO, 2016),i.e. goal 4–ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning, and goal 5– achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Gender Analysis in Textbooks laid the framework of analysis to investigate the portrayals of both sexes based on Kabira and Masinjila's(1997) productive role, reproductive role, and community role, and to assess stereo typical portrayals of gender roles as form of hidden curriculum. Ten (10) grade one textbooks were examined. Quantitative and qualitative measures of content analysis were used to gather the data. Percentage distribution was utilized to quantitatively analyze the data, while in-depth/critical analysis was used to examine qualitatively the stereo typical representations of sexes. Findings revealed that female images dominated reproductive functions; male illustrations were assigned to wide collections of productive and community roles, and gender stereotyping was manifested by frequent portrayals of traditional roles of both sexes. Gender bias is present in grade one textbooks as marked by the unequal representations of males and females in three categories of human activities, portraying males to more diverse roles requiring strength and heavy labor while illustrating females to limited activities similar to their reproductive functions.