The portrayal of women in Indonesian national physics textbooks: a textual analysis

ABSTRACT

There are many studies related to gender representation in science textbooks. However, less attention has been paid to the ways in which physics textbooks portray women: how women are situated in occupations or works, laboratory activities, and achievements, or to their characters in relation to women’s stuff. This textual analysis aims to fill the gap by investigating representations of women in three Indonesian physics textbooks as empirical evidence compared to the dominant representations of men. We have found evidence that textbook writers have been sufficiently aware of gender equality to make efforts to represent both men and women. However, most representations of women, either as agents (i.e. scientists) or as patients, have been obviously stereotyped in images and text. The empirical evidence suggests that physics textbook authors and curriculum designers would benefit from greater awareness of stereotypes that represent imbalanced gender roles for women as well as for men. Avoiding gender stereotyping is essential, as physics textbooks not only provide theoretical and practical knowledge but also demonstrate embedded values, such as gender equality.

KEYWORDS:

• Textual analysis
• gender representation
• women in science
• physics textbooks

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express our gratitude to Professor David Treagust and anonymous reviewers in this journal whose critical and helpful comments have greatly improved this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).