Sexism in EFL Textbooks

Abstract

With the rising interest in gender studies, several studies were made especially in academic discourse to investigate gender bias in language, since this latter in no more considered as simply a means of communication. In spite of the claims that efforts are made and significant procedures are taken to realize the dream of gender equality. Biased educational materials in one way or in another still exist. There was a worthy background which indicated that the language used in textbooks transmits gender bias over women. In this connection, this study adds an interesting further proof that highlight the sexist quality of schoolbook language by using Van Leeuwen’s sociosemantic approach which encompasses several categories in order to depict how woman is portrayed. Findings show that the number of female’s inclusion in activities is nearly the half of male’s inclusion.