”Håller pojkar på att bli mer som flickor?” : En granskning av läroböcker i ämnet engelska ur ett genusperspektiv

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to investigate how gender is embedded into English teaching course books in years seven and nine in secondary school in Sweden. The criteria used include male-to-female ratios regarding visibility as subjects and objects in texts, professions connected to men and women, the representation and presentation of well-known men and women, the presence of gender stereotypes as well as representation of women and men in pictures. Both quantitative and qualitative text analyses have been used and the result of the study shows that there is an inequality in terms of male-to-female ratios with men being overrepresented in all fields including presence in texts and pictures as well as having a larger representation of professions and well-known persons than women. The study further shows that while there are signs of efforts to combat gender stereotypes in the course books there are still many examples of gender stereotypes with women generally being pictured as more emotional and vulnerable, and men being pictured as more active and emotionless. Gender disparities are also visible in the form of women more often being shown to break gender stereotypes than men.