Gender representation in the public sector schools textbooks of Pakistan

“In an attempt at eliminating all forms of gender inequality in education, Ullah and Skelton (2013) elucidated gender biases in 24 school textbooks in Pakistan (Urdu, English and Social Studies) from classes 1 to 8 by employing a qualitative content analysis approach.”

“Ullah and Skelton (2013) report gender biases in 24 textbooks (Urdu, English and Social Studies), implying that over a decade long efforts by the Ministry of Education and international organisations to eliminate gender bias in education have had negligible impact.”

“According to Ullah and Skelton (2013), national textbooks of English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies, in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, follow a patriarchal ideology and promote gender inequality.”

“These categories were adapted from Ullah and Skelton (2013), Barton and Sakwa (2012), Amini and Birjandi (2012), Hall (2014), Lee (2014b), Demir and Yavuz (2017), and Porrecca (1984).”

“In Pakistani textbooks gender discrimination is prevalent (Azhar, Khalid & Mahmood, 2014; Durrani, 2008; Khurshid, Gillaniz & Hashmi, 2010; Islam & Asadullah, 2018; Mahmood, 2011; Masud, 2017; Mirza, 2004; Ram, 2008; Shah, 2012; Ullah & Haque, 2016; Ullah & Skelton, 2013; UNESCO, 2004).”

“Stereotypes, patriarchy, and the presence of extremist Islamic ideology play a part in reproducing traditional gender roles in textbooks from many predominantly Muslim countries (Alrabaa 1985; Shafiq and Ross 2010; Amini and Birjandi 2012; Ullah and Skelton 2013; Bağ and Bayyurt 2015).”

“Results obtained by Mayo [79] report the advantages of these intersections in promoting change in social education and in eradicating a hidden curriculum, gender differences in academic achievement [80] and “gender-blindness” [81].”

“In terms of employment opportunities, women’s roles are often only portrayed in domestic matters, such as managing the household (cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning the house) (Agha et al., 2018; Durrani, 2008; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“As such, the concerns include but extend beyond gender and extend into issues relating to class (Ullah and Skelton, 2013).”

“English textbooks in Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh indicated gender inequality and pro-male bias with females shown in passive and introverted roles (Jabeen, Chaudhary, and Omar 2014; Ullah and Skelton 2013).”

“Through this gendered reinforcement of roles, children are expected to comply with certain appearances, behaviours and roles in society (Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“…dealing with the analysis of language text-books claim that the importance of textbooks in teaching and learning cannot be denied; they are key components in language teaching (Acheson et al., 2020; Lee & Collins, 2010; Richards, 2009; Ullah & Skelton, 2013; Wells & Moon, 2021; You et al., 2019).”

“Textbooks are signi fi cant in shaping children socially and determining their motivations (Lee & Collins, 2009; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“On the basis of study’s findings, it can be asserted that the stereotypical representation of men and women in line with essentialist belief ignores the fact that these stereotypical notions are context, time and space specific and have no relevance in 21st century (Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“…is an area of research that has attracted various disciplines including Sociology of Gender and Sociology of Education for the last few decades and it is an area that is well researched (Clark, & Mahoney, 2004; Fox, 1993; Kohl, 1995; Oyebola, 2003; Plumm, 2008; Ullah & Skelton, 2013; Visser, 2002).”

“…we found that the common denominator among these fields is the emphasis on gender equity in education, not only in terms of parity but also in the quality of education (Barton & Sakwa, 2012; Commeyras, 1996; Mustapha & Mills, 2015; Osler, 1994; Táboas-Pais & Rey-Cao, 2012; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“© 2016 ACADEMY PUBLICATION This can be due to what is called “gender blindness” as referred to by Ullah and Skelton (2013).”

“…various ideologies are identified, including neoliberalism (Gray, 2012, Bori, 2018), gender bias in representations (Ismael & Mohammadzadeh, 2022, Ullah and Skelton, 2013), westernization (Shah & Pathan, 2016), localization of English and its discourses (Mahboob, 2009), and how these textbooks…”

“Financial constraints and gender disparities are significant factors affecting female higher education in Pakistan (Ali et al. 2023; Mursaleen and Taimur 2023; Ullah and Skelton 2013; Saher et al. 2023).”

“Sixth, these are taught to 73% of the total school going children in the province (see Ullah, 2012; Ullah & Ali, 2013: Ullah & Skelton, 2012).”

“In this grade 1 poetry text, ‘ man ’ reinforces the patriarchal normative order of Pakistani society as promoted in language textbooks (Agha et al., 2018; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“‘Many social scientists, policy makers and educationists argue that more than one education systems in Pakistan cater to the requirements of this pluralistic and vertically stratified society’ (Ullah and Skelton 2013; Ullah and Ali 2018a).”

“…(n = 3; Van Craeynest, 2015), teacher education methods’ textbooks (n = 3; Draper, 2001), Urdu, English, and social studies textbooks (n = 24; Ullah & Skelton, 2013), as well as a review of high school health textbooks and their coverage of marriage and sex (n = 9; Fehlbaum, 2020), have…”

“Additionally, in contrast to previous studies (Biemmi, 2015; Lee, 2014; Ullah & Skelton, 2013), we did not find that female characters are less often the main character of the story or take up less space in language textbooks.”

“This has negatively impacted the stature of teaching, due to its connection to domesticity and perpetuation of the stereotype that women tend to be responsible for young children (Drudy, 2008; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“Females value the specific privileges that permit them to play roles as working women and mothers or homemakers (Ullah and Skelton 2013).”

“…in textbooks and that too in roles that appear passive and submissive, more often than not related domestic work (Chick & Altoona, 2006; Esen, 2007; Gupta & Yin, 1990; Lee & Collins, 2010; Mem, 1993; Peterson & Lach, 1990; Sajjadi, 2004; Skelton, 2007, 2011; Ullah, 2006; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“…analysis of the curriculum and textbooks in the Pakistani education system was not carried out, as there already exist plenty of such literatures in several subjects at several levels to analyze gender constructs in the education system of Pakistan (see [2,12,15,16,19,28–30], for the reference).”

“That is why Campbell (2010) and Ullah & Skelton (2012) argue that representation and discrimination in school textbooks is important since it has an impact on learners’ life choices as well as motivation.”

“…expectations, possibilities, and consequences (Green et al., 2021), high school curricula in particular may affect adolescent girls’ life choices (Ullah and Skelton, 2013), career paths, and self-esteem that implies self-worth and accepting oneself, and identity according to the gendered role…”

“For instance, after examining textbooks used in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Uganda, Pakistan, and Morocco, many scholars have found that most of the objects and pictures in those textbooks represent the idea of masculinity (Ullah and Skelton, 2013; Gebregeorgis, 2016; Cobano-Delgado and Llorent-Bedmar, 2019; Lee, 201…”

“…& Mujiyanto, 2017), echoing global findings on gendered portrayals in educational materials (Blumberg, 2007; Filipovi (cid:1) c, 2018; Hodges et al., 2017; Ediyanto & Kawai, 2023; Lee & Mahmoudi-Gahrouei, 2020; Paechter, 2021; Shepherd, 2019; Sleeter, 2018; Stromquist, 2018; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“Many researches have been conducted on this topic by field experts on different aspects of gender, such as construction of gender through Textbooks (See Ullah and Skelton, 2013, 2016), Gender and Media (see Ullah and Khan, 2014) and so on.”

“Parents, from the very outset, instil gendered attitudes and temperament in boys and girls, which later turn them into culturally accepted men and women (Ullah & Skelton 2013).”

“An example of this is portraying men as drivers and women as teachers (Aguilar, 2021; Ullah & Skelton, 2013; Yang, 2014).”

“The teaching profession has been perceived as a feminine profession because women are considered the natural lovers of knowledge (Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“Ullah and Skelton (2013) also did an investigation concerning gender equality in 24 school textbooks in Pakistan by using qualitative content analysis.”

“Gender representation in children's books is important from a number of philosophical perspectives [6].”

“…documentation of an ageist hidden curriculum in elementary textbooks used in Zimbabwe despite anti-agist educational policy (Hungwe et al., 2023) and gender bias found in text-books from Pakistan despite government policy claiming to promote gender equity in education (Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“…studies found women underrepresentation in their quantity in texts in illustrations(Lee & Collins, 2009; Barton &Sakwa, 2012;Chick &Corle,2016; Ullah & Skelton, 2013), male nouns leading the female nouns in a paired noun contexts (Lee, 2018), female’s space as indoor settings (Blumberg 2008;…”

“(p. 89) In research on gender representation in textbooks, some studies show that traditional gender roles are still the norm (e.g. Hall, 2014; Ullah & Skelton, 2013), while in some localities there has been much progress (Lee & Collins, 2009).”

“Most textbooks used outside Indonesia still follow the traditional society by linking professions such as judge, doctor, and military officer to men and occupations such as nurse or teacher to women (Hall, 2014; Ullah & Skelton, 2013).”

“School textbooks have been recognized as a major shareholder for the construction of gender identities, to strengthen gender discernment and to build the prime social structures of a culture and society (Skelton & Ullah, 2013).”

“Another study was done by Ullah and Skelton (2013) in school textbooks of Pakistan.”

“In Pakistan, it is a male dominant society where males are heads of houses (Ullah and Skelton, 2013) and female heads houses are low in numbers with financial instability (Mohiuddin and Alderman, 1989).”