Laroboken och genus -En undersökning av skolans dominerande läromedel

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis paper has been to study three textbooks from Historia 1b and their chapters about World War 2. The theory influencing the paper is the gender theory by Yvonne Hirdmann, and the studied books are Alla tiders historia 1b, Historia 1b – Den lilla människan och de stora sammanhangen and Perspektiv på historien 1b. The thesis paper shows that men are presented as the norm in both the history itself, but also in the way the textbooks’ authors are retelling history. For example, one of the books authors is writing about workers and female workers in the same context. Women as a group are given a more descriptive writing than the individual females, while the individual men are more described than the group of men, who are almost exclusively written and described as soldiers. The authors of Alla tiders historia and Perspektiv på historien 1b have done a good job describing how the society changed during the time that has been studied, with women granted the right to vote, and the right to attend high school in Sweden were introduced. Women also got better conditions on the labor market, but this was only when the men were called into the war. Perspektiv på historien 1b is the most equally written textbook, as it does not make own divisions between men and women in text.