gender representation in elementary and middle school

Journal of International Women's Studies Journal of International Women's Studies

Volume 22 Issue 1 Article 25

February 2021

Gender Representation in Elementary and Middle School Social Gender Representation in Elementary and Middle School Social

Studies Textbooks in Turkey Studies Textbooks in Turkey

Melis AKAY ŞAHİN Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa

Mehmet AÇIKALIN Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation AKAY ŞAHİN, Melis and AÇIKALIN, Mehmet (2021). Gender Representation in Elementary and Middle School Social Studies Textbooks in Turkey. Journal of International Women's Studies, 22(1), 417-445. Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol22/iss1/25

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417 Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 22, No. 1 February 2021

Gender Representation in Elementary and Middle School Social Studies Textbooks in Turkey

By Melis AKAY ŞAHİN1, Mehmet AÇIKALIN2

Abstract Gender inequality, stereotyping, and discrimination against women are issues that

continue to spark debate in many countries. Women’s rights advocates in Turkey continue to struggle to reduce gender inequalities and stereotypes in every aspect of life. Education is one of the major fields where these issues should be explored and discussed. Because textbooks are the main teaching materials in a classroom, it is crucial to examine the ways in which they depict gender. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate how gender is represented in social studies textbooks. Thus, all elementary and middle school social studies textbooks in the 2018-2019 academic year used in Turkey were examined for this study. The main research approach was document analysis as the study focused on the analysis of the textbooks. More specifically, a visual content analysis approach was employed as the main research focus was on the textbook visuals. This is because visuals are one of the best tools that can portray gender. Based on the data analysis, the following themes emerged regarding gender representation in the textbooks. The main finding was that women were underrepresented compared to men as the male visuals are approximately twice as high as the female visuals in the textbooks. The main finding was that women were underrepresented compared to men as the appearance of male figures in visuals are approximately twice as high as the appearance of female figures in visuals in the textbooks. Second, women were mostly presented as the primary person who is responsible for house chores such as cooking, cleaning, and serving houseguests. In the analyzed textbooks women/mothers were depicted as the main caregivers of children and most of the time these depictions were of a lone female figure with no father present. On the other hand, when it comes to spending time with the children for fun, the father suddenly appears in the pictures. The data analysis also indicated that women were underrepresented in the professional work arena. Women were presented as holding a limited variety of professions that were generally subordinate positions under men. Therefore, we conclude that there has not been significant changes and improvements in terms of equal representation of women and reducing stereotypical and discriminatory language in the social studies textbooks in Turkey even after a couple of curriculum reform movements in the last two decades.

1 Melis AKAY ŞAHİN is a PhD candidate in the department of Social Studies Education at Istanbul University–Cerrahpaşa, Turkey. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Studies (Sinop University, 2015) and in Sociology (Anadolu University, 2019). She received her Master’s degree from Adnan Menderes University in 2017 with her thesis entitled “The influence of women teachers, who graduated from the village institutes, in Turkish society”. 2 Dr. Mehmet AÇIKALIN is Professor in the Department of Social Studies Education at İstanbul University-Cerrahpaşa. He received his Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2002 and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2006. His dissertation is entitled “The influence of computer-supported instruction (CSI) on the principles of constructivist pedagogy in the social studies curriculum”. After he completed his studies, Dr. Açıkalın returned to Turkey and currently he is teaching undergraduate and graduate-level courses.

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AKAY ?AH?N and AÇIKALIN: Gender Representation Social Studies Textbooks in Turkey

Published by Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University, 2021


Keywords: Gender, Gender inequalities, Gender stereotypes, Social studies textbooks, Visual content analysis Introduction Many scholars have already addressed the important and controversial topic of gender (Beauvoir, 2010; Çakır, 2011; Giddens, Duneier, Appelbaum, & Carr, 2012; Gümüşoğlu, 2008). The controversy is usually around challenging patriarchally-defined traditional gender roles in society. According to traditional acceptance in capitalist economies, the primary role of men is earning money and being the breadwinners of their family while the role of women is solely raising their children (Moya, Exposito, & Ruiz, 2000). These are the mainstream gender roles in many contemporary societies.

The concepts of gender and gender roles are highly associated with the idea of biological sex, which we will discuss to establish the basic concepts for our study. As Torgrimson and Minson (2005) stated that “In the most basic sense, sex is biologically determined and gender is culturally determined” (p. 785). Therefore, as they pointed out that sex refers to structural, functional, and behavioral characteristics of living things determined by sex chromosomes while gender refers to behavioral, cultural, or psychological aspects typically associated with one sex.

In addition to chromosomes, biological sex is expressed anatomically and physiologically. People use these differences between male and female bodies to distinguish and define these two sexes. While generally society believes in the presence of only two sexes, male and female, modern scientific discoveries show that biological sex is a much more complicated topic than this. This is an oversimplified version of sex; sex exists on a spectrum with individuals falling on different levels depending on “genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, [and] chromosomes” (Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth, 2021). On the other hand, the concept of gender is related to social and cultural differences between men and women (Giddens et al., 2012). As stated by Giddens et. al. “The distinction between sex and gender is fundamental, because many of the most important differences between males and females are not biological” (p. 295). However, the concept of gender may be considered as one of the problematic fields of feminist analysis as it has been difficult to define. Most likely this is because as Lips (2014) explained “Sex and gender is intertwined and it is usually impossible to separate them completely” (p. 2). Therefore, the concept is not possible to explain in a single definition. Initially, the concept of gender was used to get rid of the general notion that identification of sex is solely based on biological aspects of the human body. As the concept evolved, it was used to indicate the differences in social and cultural context regarding men and women’s identities that arise based on biological differences of both sexes (Dedeoğlu, 2000). Scott (1999) explains the concept of gender as constructed culturally and socially which defines what appropriate roles for women and men are within their society.

Therefore, it is safe to say the concept of gender and gender roles differs with respect to time, place, and society. The fact that accepted sexual behaviors vary between different cultures indicates that most sexual behaviors are learned and developed socially. As Simone de Beauvoir states in The Second Sex (2010) “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (p. 283). Likewise, Connell (1987) refuses that gender roles are fixed or constant. He believes that they are the result of an ongoing and dynamic process; sex and gender are constructed socially (Giddens et al., 2012).

In general, the phenomenon of gender emerges as a problem of inequality in many countries and societies in the world to varying degrees depending on where it exists. The values and roles related to gender assigned to women and men generally are discriminatory as they are hierarchical and put the man in the leading position and leave the woman behind (Bingöl,

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Journal of International Women's Studies, Vol. 22, Iss. 1 [2021], Art. 25



2014). Interestingly, matrilineal families—families in which women are in charge of the family—were the first family examples in human history. After people moved toward a more settled home life, power dynamics changed and patriarchal families became accepted. The historian G. Thomson reveals in this book Studies in Ancient Greek society: The prehistoric Aegean (1965) that women in the social organizations in the early times of humanity had a promoter role in society. It is interesting and may be appalling to see that even today women are fighting to regain their higher position in the family or to simply achieve equality with men.

Despite the long history and continuous fighting for women’s rights, discrimination and stereotyping against woman are still very prevalent. Discrimination and prejudice are terms that are closely linked. The Latin roots of this word mean prejudgment.

“To feel prejudice toward an individual or group is to hold and adverse opinion or belief without just ground or before acquiring sufficient knowledge [and] when prejudiced feelings or beliefs move into realm of behavior, the result is discrimination, which denies to individuals or groups of people equality of treatment” (Blumenfeld & Raymond, 2000, p. 22).

When discrimination occurs based on gender and sex, this form is discrimination is

called sexism. Another concept that goes hand in hand with gender discrimination is gender stereotyping which is defined as the process of ascribing an individual woman or man certain capacities, characteristics, or roles just because they are a member of a group (Cook, 2012). General notions/beliefs such as “a woman should constantly be prepared for marriage and motherhood,” or “women are very sensitive and fragile so that they are not eligible to work in any field” are common stereotypes in many societies. Like many other stereotypes, these stereotypes against women continuously nurture already existing discriminative actions and inequalities toward women in society.

Like many countries, gender and female inequality has always been an issue in Turkey. According to, Ince Yenilmez (2014) women in Turkey generally stay behind men at all levels. The mainstream conception that “men rule society” might be what is preventing women from receiving a proper education, which in turn limits the variety of working positions that are available to them compared to men (Ince Yenilmez, 2014, 2019). Likewise, women in Turkey generally earn less money than men (Koparan, 2020), have low level job security, and the majority of employed women must work unregistered to the social security system compared to men (Turgut, 2019). Another main reason that women in Turkey are less visible in the labor market is because of the motherhood/housewife role given to her by the society (Tokgöz, 2009). These stereotypes and discriminatory acts exist in many levels and settings in Turkey. We believe that it is important to see and investigate these inequalities and gender issues in general within the educational context in Turkey.

Thus, our purpose in this study is to investigate educational aspects of gender in Turkey. The main focus of this study is to examine how women and men are presented in elementary and middle social studies education textbooks in Turkey. As one of the major components of society, schools are important places for the construction of culturally patterned gender relations (Adler, Kless, & Adler, 1992). Social gender roles at school are presented to students through textbooks and other modes. At the same time, textbooks can be important materials that reflect the society’s cultural patterns, but also might be a guide for the society. Therefore, we believe it is important to investigate social studies textbooks in terms of how they depict male and female roles in the current Turkish society. But before delving into that we would first like to summarize some of the existing textbook analysis studies in the world and then look into the studies done in Turkey.

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Textbook Analyzing Studies Regarding Gender in the World Although it is expected that gender discrimination and/or stereotyping is mostly seen

in undeveloped countries, many countries of the world still have not been able completely erase issues related to gender inequalities and discrimination from their societies. These inequalities are prevalent in education systems, media, and many book forms including textbooks. One large study investigating 5,618 children books published throughout the twentieth century in the United States found out that males are represented much more than females in the titles of the books (nearly twice as often) and as central characters (1.6 times as often) (McCabe, Fairchild, Grauerholz, Pescosolido, & Tope, 2011). Correspondingly, another study done on American government and politics textbooks by Olivo (2012) showed that the main narratives still focus on male political figures and their experiences while very limited places were allocated for women experiences regarding the government and political issues of the United States. Another recent study analyzing 1,468 figures across elementary and middle school health textbooks in the United States found that, although gender and racial diversity are well-represented in texts, women were frequently portrayed in stereotypical roles such as girls daydreaming about heterosexual marriage (Deckman, Fulmer, Kirby, Hoover, & Mackall, 2018). Although this study might show some improvement about presentation of women among other minorities, the stereotypical issues are still somewhat visible in the textbooks. In other parts of the world, many issues regarding gender representation in textbooks are still common. For instance, a study analyzing elementary school textbooks in Romania showed that male dominance is still present in the textbooks and men are presented more frequently in public space doing activities while women are in the private space (Cocoradă, 2018).

Another study from the Far East comparing Chinese and Taiwan textbooks provided strong findings that gender representation in textbooks still exists on very high levels in those regions (Zhang, 2014). The author concluded that more males are shown in illustrations than females, females tend to be shown in supporting roles while male professional workers are emphasized more, and when gender is unspecified in the text, the characters shown in illustrations generally happened to be male. Finally, Zhang pointed out although the analyzed textbooks in both countries try to promote the equality of sexes in their texts, social stereotypes still persist. Lee (2014) compared two versions (1988 and 2005) of ESL textbooks in Hong Kong and found some improvement in terms of increasing visibility of women both visually and textually. Nevertheless, the findings of this study also revealed that portrayals of women were in a more limited range of social roles than men and the ‘male-first’ phenomenon were still prevalent in the contemporary textbooks. Another study comparing Australian and Hong Kong language textbooks also showed that although gender-inclusive language has been emerging from the textbooks, several issues still persist regarding gender representations (Lee & Collins, 2010). Male-first presentation, presenting women in a more limited range of social roles, and using figures that depict women as weaker and more passive than men were still visible in the language textbooks in both countries. Finally, a more recent study done regarding Japanese EFL textbooks corroborates the findings of the previous study. Once more, Lee (2018) concluded that while findings of the study revealed some evidence of gender equity such as using gender inclusive vocabulary (e.g., salesclerk, waitperson) the secondary status of women and gender stereotyping is still prevalent in Japanese EFL textbooks.

When researching studies of gender representations in the textbooks in Middle Eastern and Muslim countries of different parts of the world, several issues were reported. A recent study in Saudi Arabia by Aljuaythin (2018) found that there is a gender imbalance in favor of men where women were not depicted at all in some outdoor activities such as driving, eating at restaurants, and going on a vacation. Similarly, another recent study on Moroccan ELT textbooks indicated that there are biased gender representations in favor of men regarding frequency of appearance, visibility, space, and primacy of man (Bouzid, 2019). Likewise, a

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study which investigated how gender roles are represented in Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and AFL (Arabic as a Foreign Language) textbooks showed that with no exception males were represented significantly more than females (Baghdadi & Rezaei, 2015). Furthermore, another study analyzing 95 Iranian textbooks showed that 21% of women are shown in public settings while 77% are shown with the responsibilities of their families, such as housework and motherhood. According to Paivandi (2008), Iranian textbooks feature gender discrimination; the textbooks depict women’s lives as formed in line with religion and the traditions of the society in the textbooks.

Bangladesh is also not much different from other places in the Muslim World in terms of gender representations in textbooks. Asadullah, Islam, and Wahhaj (2018) concluded that all Bangladeshi school textbooks include pro-male bias regardless of whether they are based on a secular or religious curriculum and they believe one of the reasons is that the textbooks were authored almost exclusively by men. Finally, another recent study that compares Malaysian, Indonesian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi textbooks confirms a pro-male bias in textbooks in all of these countries (Islam & Asadullah, 2018). The study showed that women were mostly depicted in less prestigious occupations and mostly involved in domestic and indoor activities compared to men.

In conclusion, the literature indicated that issues related to gender discrimination are visible in all parts of the world. Further, these research studies reveal a pattern of discrimination that is exemplified by differences between depictions of women and men, and by the frequency of appearances in the textbooks. Of course, the severity of the issues might not be the same in every part of the world. Nonetheless, even in many developed and modern countries such as the United States, Australia and Japan the women are still depicted with limited and passive social and professional roles in the textbooks. Therefore, it looks like gender issues, whether in textbooks or not, will persist for a long time or at least into the near future.

Textbook Analyzing Studies Regarding Gender in Turkey In this section, we will briefly introduce the literature on gender representation in the

Turkish textbooks. However, we would like to give some background information about Turkey before that. Turkey is located between Europe and Asia and it is considered a bridge between the West and East even though the main part is in Asia and only a small portion is in Europe. The current population of Turkey is 83.15 million with predominantly Muslim population (Turkish Statistical Institute [TSI], 2020). Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 after the Ottoman Empire collapsed as a result of World War I. Modern Turkey has been a secular country from the beginning; sharia law has never governed women’s rights to vote. Women were given the right to vote and be elected in 1934. Women’s suffrage in Turkey came long before many Muslim and even some Western countries (see Teacher Scholastic, n.d.; Women Suffrage and Beyond, n.d.).

The young Turkish state awarded much importance to women’s rights and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey (between 1920s—until 1945) even women were depicted in the textbooks with a role to teach civilization and the foundations of the new state to the new generation (Gümüşoğlu, 2008). After this era, women started to lose this leading position and found themselves in a place that their main role was to serve their family. Therefore, in the textbooks visuals of women were mostly presented only within family roles as wife and mother and they were shown cooking, making jam, pickles, and tomato paste, and doing other house chores such as cleaning and knitting. However, there were some changes in the textbooks in the 2001-2002 academic year; consequently, textbooks began depicting women having jobs and working like men, and men were even depicted helping the women with house chores (Gümüşoğlu, 2008).

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Although there are some positive changes in the last two decades about the presentation of women in the textbooks, women are still underrepresented compared to men and supplementary learning materials that focus on Turkish women such as primary sources, memorabilia, posters, and other auxiliary reading texts are still insufficient in the social studies textbooks (Zor, 2008). For example, human figures in the Turks on the Silk Road chapter in the 6th grade Social Studies textbooks in 2007 and 2014 consist of a high proportion of men (Karaçalı Taze, 2018). This chapter is one of the main history chapters that focus on the pre-Islamic Turkish history in which women had a prominent role in the society. Anadolu-Okur (2005) stated during the pre-Islamic era, nomadic Turkic societies relied heavily on women's skills for survival as women rode horses, participated in wars, and conducted trade business. So, even in this period in which women had played a significant role in the society, women were not presented as they deserved in the textbooks.

In many social studies textbooks including history, geography, and citizenship education, men were always depicted as the head of family and women remained generally behind men (Demirel, 2010; Tezer Asan, 2010). Women generally are assigned to domestic roles such as taking care of children and kitchen chores while men are assigned to outdoor roles and activities. In general, women are shown as housewife or holding professions “suitable to women” such as teacher, farmer, nanny, servant, tailor, nurse (Demirel, 2010). Women were rarely presented as school administrators, rather school administrators are generally represented by men in the textbooks (Aykaç, 2012; Sarıtaş & Şahin, 2018).

Although the aforementioned issues still exist in many textbooks in Turkey, a few textbooks might have been better than others in terms of presenting women. According to Aratemur-Çimen and Bayhan (2018) 9th grade history textbooks used in the 2016 academic year were generally in favor of supporting equality between men and women, acknowledging the role of women in historiography, and depicting women as political authorities and in positions of power, while in the following year’s textbooks the portrayal was the opposite and these sections were completely omitted or weakened. The follow-up study focusing on textbooks for various schools’ subjects in Turkey also concluded that gender biased language and visuals are still dominant in the most current textbooks in Turkey (Aratemur Çimen & Bayhan, 2019). They indicated that women and their female children generally are depicted doing housework and men are depicted doing the house budget as they are the primary breadwinners.

In conclusion, several challenges related to gender equality persist in Turkish social studies textbooks. Throughout Turkish history, depending on the political environment, women have been represented with varying levels of equality. Nonetheless, as Aratemur-Çimen and Bayhan (2018) concluded, there has never been a time where gender discourse has been completely equitable. Thus, in this study we would like to investigate the most current situation on this issue by analyzing social studies textbooks used in the 2018-2019 academic year in order to see whether there have been any changes.

Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is to investigate how gender is represented in social studies

textbooks and to see if there are any changes in that regard. Thus, all elementary and middle school social studies textbooks used in the 2018-2019 academic year were examined in terms of gender representation. The following research questions were generated for this study.

1. What are the number of visuals that include male and female figures in the

social studies textbooks?

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2. How is household workload between men and women presented in the social studies textbooks?

3. How are the responsibilities of mother and father for childcare presented in the social studies textbooks?

4. What are the professions of men and women in social studies textbooks? Methodology

This research was conducted using a document analysis method. Document analysis is defined by Bowen (2009) as “A systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents” (p. 27). According to Bowen, although document analysis is generally used as additional data collection methods to support the main data of a research, it also can be used as a stand-alone method and research design when it is appropriate. Since our research was completely based on textbooks as documents, the research design of this study can be defined as a stand-alone document analysis.

Documents often express facts, ideas, arguments, narratives or any type of knowledge in multi-modal forms so that documents frequently contain pictures, diagrams, emblems and the like, as well as words (Prior, 2003). As this study is mostly based on visuals in the current social studies textbooks in Turkey, we have employed the visual content analysis method. Visual content analysis is based on what is directly visible to the researcher in a figure or set of figures and it is a more quantitative type of analysis compared to other methods of visual analysis (Johnson & Christensen, 2014). According to Johnson and Christensen, a study that examines the relative frequencies of women or minorities in school texts or visuals could be a perfect example of visual content analysis. Thus, this method suited the purpose and design of this research perfectly.

Data Analysis and Findings A total of nine elementary and middle school social studies textbooks were examined

for this study. They comprise all of the social studies textbooks used in the 2018-2019 academic year in Turkey (see Appendix). The following textbooks were analyzed for this research: 1st

through 3rd grades Life Studies; 4th grade Elementary School Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy; 4th through 7th grades Social Studies and 8th grade Turkish Revolution History and Ataturkism.3 These courses are all kinds of elementary (Grade 1-4) and middle school (Grade 5-8) courses that can be considered social studies education courses in the current Turkish school system although they have different titles, since a few of them focus on history and citizenship.

Visual content analysis was applied and all of the visuals in the textbooks were analyzed. The data analysis focused on categorizing the general content of the visuals and counting the number of visuals that fall under each category which was a pretty straightforward process. Visual content analysis “is less concerned with deep meaning and more concerned with prevalence” (Johnson & Christensen, 2014, p. 769). Therefore, we have created a table that shows the number of men and women figures in the textbooks so that this provides a general comparison regarding the visibility of women in all of the elementary and middle school social studies textbooks in Turkey. As Johnson and Christensen (2014) pointed out, the formed categories as a result of visual content analysis are observable because variables and

3 Ataturkism: “Worldview developed by M. Kemal Ataturk [the founder of modern Turkey], and his associates. It was the political philosophy behind reforms promoting the westernization of Turkey in the early republic era. The main principles of Ataturkism are republicanism, secularism, nationalism, populism, and Revolutionism/ reformism.” (Heper, Öztürk-Tunçel, & Criss, 2018, p. 67)

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certain characteristics of the data analysis are clearly defined so that coders can classify consistently. Accordingly, we have created codes of visuals based on their visible content. This was quite straightforward and a relatively undisputable process because the content of the visuals was quite clear. For example, if a person in the visuals was cooking, vacuuming, serving the guests or picnicking, it was quite obvious. In addition, the text accompanying the visuals was also analyzed in order to clarify and make sure of the intended meaning in case there was a slight doubt. Although there was not much dispute, during the data analysis process both researchers negotiated constantly over the codes to reach the most refined version of codes that constituted the main themes of the data. Four main themes emerged from the data analysis regarding how gender was presented in the textbooks. The themes are: (a) the number of male and female figures used in the textbooks; (b) the workload division at home between men and women; (c) children care responsibilities of mother and father; and (d) professions of men and women presented in the textbooks.

The Number of Male and Female Figures Used in the Textbooks

There are 1.884 visuals in the nine social studies textbooks which were analyzed. Of these, 454 (24%) visuals depicted only women figures, 823 (44%) depicted only men, and 607 (32%) visuals presented male and female figures together. The distribution of visuals in terms of gender representation for each textbook is indicated below in Table 1:

Table 1: The Number of Male and Female Figures Used in the Textbook

Grade Female Male Together Total

1st Grade Life Studies 2nd Grade Life Studies 3rd Grade Life Studies 4th Grade Elementary School Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy 4th Grade Elementary School Social Studies 5th Grade Middle School Social Studies 6th Grade Middle School Social Studies 7th Grade Middle School Social Studies 8th Grade Turkish Revolution History and Ataturkism Total

132 52 105 5 97 14 22 14 13 454

166 69 128 11 100 50 55 82 162 823

123 118 86 47 56 38 58 36 45 607

421 239 319 63 253 102 135 132 220 1.884

As it can be seen in Table 1, the number of pictures depicting male characters is much

higher than female characters in all the textbooks analyzed. Only in the 4th grade Social Studies textbook the numbers of female (97) and male (100) representation in the visual is close to each other among nine textbooks. The Workload Division at Home Between Men and Women

The analysis of the visuals in the social studies textbooks clearly showed that the woman/mother figures have the primary role in household chores. Mothers were depicted in 14 visuals as doing some type of housework while the fathers were only depicted in five visuals

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doing some cleaning at the house. The data analysis also indicated that after the mother, the daughter was presented in the textbooks as the second person who does the main housework. Finally, the son of the family is only represented once while he is collecting his toys and there are not any other visuals that show him doing any housework in all analyzed textbooks.

Table 2: The Workload Division at Home

House Chores Together (as a family)

By Mother

By Father

By Girl Child

By Boy Child

Cleaning windows Cooking Doing laundry Dusting Ironing Serving house guests Setting the dining table Shopping Taking curtain down Tidying up home Vacuuming Total

1 1 2 4

3 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 14

1 1 3 5

1 3 2 2 8

1 1

In some of the textbooks men and women were presented as doing some household

chores together. For example, in the section entitled Our family life in 1st grade Life Studies textbook, a passage states:

“There are chores that need to be done to keep our family life organized. Such as making food, doing the dishes and laundry, and making up the bed. It is very difficult for only one of the family members to do these works [alone]. Therefore, these works must be done with the cooperation [of family members] …” (p. 63). In the visual of the text, each family member was presented doing a single house chore

alone. In Figure 1, the separate drawings depict the mother ironing, the husband vacuuming, and the child of the house, a little girl, is making her bed. In the last drawings all family members are presented while they are setting the dining table together.

Similarly, in the section entitled My house is clean, my environment is clean in the 2nd grade Life Studies textbook a passage reads, “…we should share responsibilities with all of our family members while cleaning our house” (p. 102). In the visual of the text (see Figure 2), each family member is depicted doing different cleaning tasks at the same time: the woman is vacuuming, the man is taking the curtains down, and the girl is dusting.

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Figure 1: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our House; Section: Our Family Life [p. 62]).

Figure 2: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Healthy

Life; Section: My House is Clean, My Environment is Clean [p. 102]).

In the other sections of the same textbook, family members are presented doing house chores together even if the section is not regarding housework. For instance, in the Technology everywhere section, which discusses how household appliances ease the housework, the mother is presented using a washing machine, the father is vacuuming, the girl is dusting, and the boy is collecting his toys (see Figure 3). While all family members are doing some cleaning and tidying up together, the boy is doing the work just concerning himself. Interestingly, this is the only visual in all analyzed textbooks that show a boy doing any type of housework.

In addition, in the 3rd grade Life Studies textbook in the section entitled Everybody [lives] at home has a house chore a girl is saying the following words when explaining how the house chores are distributed in her family:

“…members of the family [should] carry out their duties and responsibilities on time. For example, I dust, tidy up my room, water the flowers in our house, and take care of our bird named Mavi [Blue]. My older family members do cleaning, shopping and so on [and other house works]” (p. 54). Figure 4 shows the woman and girl dusting while the man vacuums.

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Figure 3: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Safe Life; Section: Technology Everywhere [p. 139]).

Figure 4: Reprinted from 3rd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our House; Section: Everybody [live] at Home has a House Chore [p. 54]).

The 2nd grade Life Studies textbooks section entitled Our religious days and bairams, which focuses on cooperation and solidarity, also explains cleaning the house before religious holidays as a long tradition in the Turkish culture. The visual that corresponds with the text (see Figure 5) shows the female vacuuming and the male cleaning the windows while the girl helps with tidying up the house. Figure 5: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in

Our Country; Section: Our Religious Days and Bairams [p. 167]).

While men and boys are depicted doing some housework (mostly cleaning) to some degree, only women and girls are presented while they are cooking in the textbooks. Indeed, there are a couple of examples of that in the 2nd grade Life Studies textbook. In both visuals (see Figures 6-7) mothers are depicted as cooking while the girls are helping them. In Figure 6 the girl says, “I like to cook with my mother” (p. 14). Similarly, in Figure 7 the girl is having a conversation with her mother in the kitchen. The girl says “Mother, I have tidied up my room up. Now, I can set the table” and the mother replies “Thank you Ece [girl’s name]. I get less tired because you help me with housework” (p. 76).

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Figure 6: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our School; Section: I am Growing, I am Changing [p. 14-15]).

Figure 7: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in

Our House; Section: Let’s Help [p. 76]).

According to these textbooks, women’s depicted roles are not limited to the kitchen; women must be involved in all housework, most of the time alone. Again, in the 2nd grade Life Studies textbook within the unit entitled Life in our house in both pictures the woman is portrayed serving the guests in her house (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in

Our House; Section: My Close Relatives [p. 54- 58]).

To summarize, our analysis clearly indicates that the woman/mother figure is presented as having the major responsibility and workload in housework in the social studies education textbooks in Turkey. The girl/daughter is almost always presented as the helper and second hand of the mother in the housework. Although the man/father is sometimes presented doing some house cleaning work, the boy/son is almost never presented doing real housework except once while he was collecting his toys. Moreover, in most house cleaning visuals the boy/son does not even exist.

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Children Care Responsibilities of Mother and Father The textbook analysis indicated that aside from the housework, women/mothers are

always presented with the primary role of taking care of the children. Table 3 shows how mothers are often presented in the visuals of the textbooks doing various childcare tasks while the men/fathers are only shown completing a few tasks and some are just leisure activities. On the contrary, there are examples of every kind of childcare visuals in the textbooks from drying hair, preparing lunch boxes, and walking the kids to the school bus, which are all done by the mother.

Table 3: The Visuals of the Textbooks that Represent the Tasks of Taking Caring of the

Children By Mother &

Father By Mother Alone

By Father Alone

Buying stuff for the children Cutting fingernail Drying hair Getting permission from school Giving advice & Listening the problems of the child Helping teeth brushing Helping with the homework Preparing lunch box Spending time with the child outside of the house Taking the child to school Walking the child to the school bus Total

3 2 4 1 10

3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11

1 1 1 2 5

For example, in the visual of the unit entitled Life in our house in the 1st grade Life

Studies textbooks, a girl asks her mother to cut her nails (see Figure 9). Textbooks portray mothers guiding or helping their kids with personal hygiene and looks. Figures 10 and 11 show teeth brushing and hair drying respectively, and the mother figure is directing both activities. The father is never presented helping his kids on such matters in any analyzed textbooks in this study.

Figure 9: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our House; Section: Let’s be Courteous [p. 69]).

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Figure 10: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our House; Section: Without [Natural] Resources [p. 71]).

Figure 11: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Safe Life; Section: Use of Technological Tools and Equipment [p. 136])

While the mother is always presented as responsible for kids’ personal hygiene and physical appearance, when it comes to giving advice regarding daily issues both mother and father figures are used in the textbooks. In Figure 12, in the section entitled Thriftiness at home in the 3rd grade Life Studies textbook, the mother and father are talking with their daughter about thriftiness strategies such as how stale bread can be used as an ingredient for a new meal, along with giving her tips on saving electricity and water at home. In Figure 13, we see a father talking with his son about not using the cell phone while it is charging as it is not safe to do so.

Figure 12: Reprinted from 3rd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in

Our House; Section: Thriftiness at Home [p. 59]).

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Figure 13: Reprinted from 2rd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Safe Life; Section: Technology Everywhere [p. 138]).

On the other hand, the accompanying text of the visual (see Figure 14) in the 7th grade

Social Studies textbook depicts a mother having a close conversation about important topics including her children’s problems.

Figure 14: Reprinted from 7th Grade Social Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit:

Individual and Society; Section: The Path from human to human [p. 15])

There are other examples of visuals that represent a mother giving advice to her kids; one of them is about appropriate behavior in the public. In Figure 15, a mother is telling her son “We should not talk out loud in a patisserie” (p. 98).

Figure 15: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit:

Healthy Life; Section: Table Manners [p. 98]).

The father is not depicted at all in the visuals of textbooks while listening to problems

of the children or giving advice to them about good behaviors. Thus, it seems that there is a conventional perspective in the textbooks that the mother should deal with her children’s behaviors and problems whereas the father deals with issues such as home economy, thriftiness, and technology.

The data analysis of these textbooks also indicated that women are generally presented dealing with school and outdoor issues related to their kids as well. For example, in the 1st grade Life Studies textbook there is a section entitled Sevgi [girl’s name] is going to school accompanied with a picture that depicts a woman with her daughter taking an elevator. The text (see Figure 16) explains how Sevgi’s mother goes downstairs with her and waits for the

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school bus and makes sure Sevgi gets on the bus safely. Again, in the same textbook, in the section entitled Let’s learn about sections of our school a mother is depicted as talking with a school administrator and the picture is accompanied with a question saying “My mother and I will go to dentist tomorrow. Which department should my mother go [appeal] to get [me] permission?” (p. 29) (see Figure 17).

Figure 16: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Safe

Life; Section: Sevgi [Girl’s Name] is Going to School [p. 113]).

Figure 17: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in

Our School; Section: Let’s Learn About Sections of Our School [p. 29]).

Other than these examples there are just a few visuals that show mother and father involved with the school issues of their kids. For instance, a girl starting first grade is presented with her mother and father taking her to school together on the first day of school (see Figure 18). In Figure 19, mother and father are also depicted together while they are helping their son do homework. Interestingly, the topic of text is completely different from family issues. This picture is in the Technology everywhere section in the 2nd grade Life Studies textbook and the boys says, “I am using technology tools while I am doing my homework” (p. 137).


Our School; Section: Yasemin [Girl’s Name] Starting to School [p. 13]).

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Figure 19: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Safe Life; Section: Technology Everywhere [p. 137]).

In textbooks, generally women/mothers are depicted as the main caregiver to their children; they mostly appear alone without the presence of a father. However, when it comes to spending time with the children for fun, the father suddenly appears in the pictures. Moreover, fathers are mostly presented alone with their sons while doing some outdoor leisure activities in the analyzed textbooks. For instance, in Figure 20, a father is camping alone with his son, and a father and son are going to a soccer game together in Figure 21.

Figure 20: Reprinted from 3rd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in

Nature; Section: Finding My Direction [p. 165])

Figure 21: Reprinted from 3rd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our Country; Section: Common/Public Use [p. 130])

There are not any visuals in the textbooks that show the mother and daughter or father

and daughter spending time together outside the house to do some fun activities. Rather there are more visuals that show all family members going for a picnic together (see Figure 22 -23).

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Figure 22: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Nature; Section: Clean Environment [p. 180]).

Figure 23: Reprinted from 2nd Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Healthy Life; Section: My House is Clean, My Environment is Clean [p. 104])

Professions of Men and Women Presented in the Textbooks

The data analysis indicated that in textbooks men are presented with a wide variety of professions compared to women. Men are depicted having 62 different professions while women only have 34 different professions in the textbooks. Both men and women are presented in the same line of work only in 16 different types of professions in the textbooks. This list of jobs performed by both men and women in the textbooks is: teacher, doctor, scientist, cook, farmer, neighborhood head, paramedic, baker, food engineer, anchorman/woman, school janitor, pilot, health operator, medical engineer, veterinarian and writer.

The professions of women (see Table 4) and men (see Table 5) cited in the textbooks are presented in the below tables:

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Table 4: The Frequency of Professions of Women Cited in the Textbooks Teacher (39) Nurse (9) Doctor (7) Scientist (4) Cashier (3) Cook (3) Farmer (3) Tourist guide (3) Neighborhood head (2) Tailor (2) Textile designer (2) Agricultural engineer (1) Anchorman/woman (1) Archaeologist (1) Baker (1) Clerk (1) Company manager (1)

Dancing instructor (1) Food engineer (1) Greenhouse worker (1) Hairstylist (1) Health operator (1) Health technician (1) Librarian (1) Mayor (1) Medical engineer (1) Mining engineer (1)j Paramedic (1) Pilot (1) Prime minister (1) School janitor (1) Salesperson/Clerk (1) Veterinarian (1) Writer (1)

Table 5: The Frequency of Professions of Men Cited in the Textbooks

Soldier (110) Administrator/founder (49) Teacher (25) Scientist (23) Writer (22) Inventor/explorer (20) Doctor (14) Farmer (8) School janitor (7) Poet (6) Police officer (6) Bus driver (3) Dentist (3) Fisherman (3) Football player (3) Mine worker (3) Painter (3) Baker (2) Beekeeper (2) Fireman (2) Long distance driver (2)

Ranger (2) School cafe owner (2) Shepherd (2) Sportsman (2) Aerospace engineer (1) Anchorman (1) Anthropologist (1) Assistant principal (1) Bazaar (outdoor) salesman (1) Biomedical engineer (1) Carpenter (1) Civil engineer (1) Construction worker (1) Cook (1) Disaster and emergency team member (1) Dry Cleaner (1) Drummer (1) Factory worker (1) Food engineer (1) Forest engineer (1) Governor (1)

Health operator (1) Hospital chief of medicine (1) Judge (1) Lawyer (1) Marriage officer (1) Mechanic (1) Medical engineer (1) Neighborhood head (1) Pilot (1) Political party leader (1) Postman (1) Paramedic (1) Receptionist (1) School principal (1) Simit seller (1) Soccer referee (1) Soup kitchen employees (1) Superintendent (1) Technician (1) Veterinarian (1)

Table 4 and 5 show men represented as soldiers while women are depicted as teachers

with the highest frequency among other professions. This situation could be related to the assigned roles of men and women in the traditional Turkish society. According to mainstream beliefs in Turkish society, teaching is the most suitable profession for women because they can take care of or get involved with kids much better than men can. They will also have time after school to take care of their own children and finish their housework. On the other hand, in

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general, ordinary Turkish men are very fond of the army and many of them may dream to be a high-ranking army officer as it is a very prestigious job and symbolizes power. Another mainstream belief in Turkish society is that some professions are only for men and there are only a few which are more suitable for women. Most likely this is the reason that men are presented as having much more diverse professions compared to women.

Another finding of the study is that women are generally represented in subordinate positions in the work environment. For example, the following figures show both men and women as teachers (see Figure 24) while the school principal (see Figure 25), assistant principal (see Figure 26), and district superintendent (see Figure 27) are only depicted as men in the 1st grade Life Studies and 4th grade Social Studies textbooks.


Our School; Section: Let’s Learn About Sections of Our School [p. 29]).

Figure 25: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our School; Section: People Who Work for Us at the School [p. 32]).

Figure 26: Reprinted from 1st Grade Life Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Life in Our School; Section: Who Can I Ask for Help? [p. 34]).

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Figure 27: Reprinted from 4th Grade Social Studies Textbook (Instructional Unit: Production, Distribution and Consumption; Section: Yes! for Consumption, But No! to

be Extravagant [p. 143]).

Likewise, in the 4th grade Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy textbook in the visual that represented a courtroom, the clerk is depicted as a woman whereas the judge is a man (see Figure 28) and women never presented as judges in any textbooks.

Figure 28: Reprinted from 4th Grade Human Rights, Citizenship and Democracy

Textbook (Instructional Unit: Justice and Equality; Section: People are Equal [p. 50]).

The data analysis showed that men are presented as holding a much wider variety of professions compared to women in the textbooks and women are generally represented in subordinate positions to men in the work environment.

Discussion and Conclusion In conclusion, this study clearly indicates that there are several issues in terms of gender

inequalities in the current elementary and middle school social studies textbooks in Turkey. The first issue regards the proportion of visuals that depicted men and women in the analyzed textbooks. Men are represented in the visuals nearly twice as often as women in all elementary and middle school social studies textbooks in Turkey. Studies across the world have documented that women are underrepresented in textbooks. Studies done on Chinese and Taiwanese (Zhang, 2014), Moroccan (Bouzid, 2019) and Iranian (Baghdadi & Rezaei, 2015) textbooks showed that men are represented much more than women. Even a large study in the United States investigated 5,618 children books and found out that males are represented much more than females in the titles of the books and as central characters (see McCabe et al., 2011).

Although there are a few studies that show some improvement in terms of increased visibility of women (Lee, 2014) and more equal representation of gender (Deckman et al., 2018) in textbooks in some countries like Hong Kong and the United States, the stereotypical professional and social roles and the male-dominant phenomena are still visible. Our study also reveals several gender stereotypes such as the belief that women/mothers have the primary role in household chores and childcare while daughters are the main helpers of mothers and an

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apprentice for housework. In a previous study, Demirel (2010) also found that women are generally shown as housewives in social studies textbooks in Turkey. Moreover, a more recent study focused on textbooks on various schools’ subjects in Turkey found that women and their young daughters generally are depicted doing housework (Aratemur Çimen & Bayhan, 2019). Therefore, it is clear that the major stereotype about women in social studies textbooks in Turkey is still prevalent as women are represented as mothers and housewives who do all house chores and solely care for their children.

Even if a woman was not presented as a housewife, she is still presented as holding limited kinds of professions and less prestigious or subordinate positions in the textbooks of many countries. For instance, a recent study that compares Malaysian, Indonesian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi textbooks confirms that women are mostly depicted in less prestigious occupations and are mostly involved in domestic and indoor activities compared to men (Islam & Asadullah, 2018). Another study from the Far East that compares Chinese and Taiwanese textbooks also concludes that females tend to be shown in supporting roles while males’ professions are emphasized more (Zhang, 2014). Our study also showed that men are presented as holding a much greater variety of professions compared to women and women are generally represented in subordinate positions to men when shown in the same work environment. For instance, the woman is mostly shown as a teacher but not as a school district administrator in the textbooks. These findings confirm the findings of previous studies done in Turkey (Aykaç, 2012; Sarıtaş & Şahin, 2018). Thus, it is safe to say, there has not been much improvement on this matter in the textbooks in Turkey; that is, women are still represented with limited kinds of professions and in subordinate work positions.

In fact, the current statistics in Turkey also show the disparity between men and women’s professions and corroborate with the findings of our study. According to Turkish Statistical Institute [TSI] (2019), only 7.1% of police officers are women. When it comes to high-level state official positions, women are almost invisible. Currently there are only two women provincial governors out of 81 and only 23 women county/district governors which constitute only 2.8% of total number of governors in Turkey (TSI, 2019). In the political arena women are also unrepresented. According to 2018 national elections, 104 women got elected which constitutes only 17.3% of the seats in the Turkish Parliament [The Grand National Assembly of Turkey], and there are only two women ministers in the cabinet.

Nevertheless, there are few professions that women constitute a relatively better proportion of the total number of positions. For instance, there are 6.169 women judges in Turkey which constitutes 44.7% of the total number of judges. Even in the field of teaching, the number of women is much higher than men especially at kindergarten and elementary school levels. There were 88.062 female and 5.240 male kindergarten teachers and 192.537 female and 108.195 male elementary school teachers in the 2018-2019 academic year in Turkey. The number of women professors and lecturers is also relatively high although it does not exceed the number of male professors. There are 74.391 (44%) female and 91.834 (56%) male academic staff in higher education in Turkey (TSI, 2019).

However, when it comes to high-level administrative positions in the field of education, women are still underrepresented. According to current data, there are only 20 women university presidents out of 207 universities in Turkey. Female representation is even lower in school district superintendent and other high-level educational bureaucratic positions under the Ministry of Education. There are only two women provincial superintendents out of 81 and just 13 assistant superintendents in these provinces. In the school district level, the situation is not much different for women. There are 950 school districts and 54.036 state schools in Turkey and of these only 12 women are school district superintendents, and 2.904 women are principals (Lıcalı, 2020). Therefore, it looks like the women are represented as holding a

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limited variety of professions and generally subordinate positions under men in the Turkish social studies textbooks is, in fact, a reflection of the real situation in Turkey.

In conclusion, our study showed that women in Turkey still are underrepresented in the social studies textbooks and even when they are visible, they are mostly presented as the primary person who is responsible for house chores and childcare. Women are presented as holding a limited variety of professions compared to men and even if a woman is shown holding a job, it is rarely a high-level administrative position. Although in the last two decades there may have been slight improvement in terms of gender equity, major inequalities and stereotypical perspectives still exist in social studies textbooks in Turkey. This study is limited to nine social studies textbooks which is only a portion of all textbooks used in different subjects and grade levels in Turkey. Another limitations of this study is its lack of intersectional analysis (focusing on gender rather than gender intersecting with other aspects of identity including class, sexuality, and ethnic minorities) due to lack of cultural variety in the textbooks. The images depict heterosexual normativity rather than the range of human sexual diversity. Nevertheless, this study shows how women are underrepresented in social studies textbooks and when they are represented, it is mostly based on stereotypical and mainstream beliefs. We hope that more studies can be done in the future that support and enhance the role of women in the educational context as well as politics and society.

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Appendix: Analyzed Textbooks Altay, N., Ay, S., Ertek, Z. Ö., Polat, H., Selmanoğlu, E., & Yalçın, Y. (2018). 4. Sınıf ilkokul

insan hakları, yurttaşlık ve demokrasi ders kitabı [4th grade elementary school human rights, citizenship and democracy textbook]. Ankara: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı.

Baydar, S., & Öztürk, F. (2018). 8. Sınıf ortaokul ve imam hatip ortaokulu Türkiye Cumhuriyeti inkılap tarihi ve Atatürkçülük [8th grade middle school and imam hatip secondary school Turkish revolution history and Ataturkism textbook]. Ankara: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı.

Çelikbaş, E., Gürel, F., & Özcan, N. (2018). 3. Sınıf ilkokul hayat bilgisi ders kitabı [3rd grade elementary school life studies textbook]. Ankara: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı.

Demir, E. (2018). 1. Sınıf ilkokul hayat bilgisi ders kitabı [1st grade elementary school life studies textbook]. Ankara: Kök-e.

Gültekin, G., Akpınar, M., Nohutcu, M., Özerdoğan, P., & Aygun, S. (2018). 7. Sınıf ortaokul ve imam hatip ortaokulu sosyal bilgiler ders kitabı [7th grade middle school and imam hatip school social studies textbook]. Ankara: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı.

Kuşkaya, Ç. (2018). 2. Sınıf ilkokul hayat bilgisi ders kitabı [2nd grade elementary school life studies textbook]. Ankara: Sdr İpek Yolu.

Şahin, E. (2018). 5. Sınıf ortaokul ve imam hatip ortaokulu sosyal bilgiler ders kitabı [5th grade middle school and imam hatip school social studies textbook]. Ankara: Anadol.

Tüysüz, S. (2018). 4. Sınıf ilkokul sosyal bilgiler ders kitabı [4th grade elementary school life studies textbook]. Ankara: Tuna.

Yılmaz, F. G., Bayraktar, H., Özden, M. K., Akpınar, M., & Evin, Ö. (2018). 6. Sınıf ortaokul ve imam hatip ortaokulu sosyal bilgiler ders kitabı [6th grade middle school and imam hatip school social studies textbook]. Ankara: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı.

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Note: According to the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works in Turkey (Law no: 5846, Article 4 and 35) it is permitted to reprint any types of fine art, including all types of drawings, cartoons, and photographs that have already been made public, in a scientific work for the purpose of explaining its content.

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