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Abstract
This paper examines the nature and extent of gender stereotyping, both linguistic and pictorial, in a set of 10 Australian English‐language textbooks for intermediate learners. In order to determine how accurately the books reflect the status of women in contemporary Australian society a content and linguistic analysis was conducted, focusing on, amongst other things, the ratio of male to female characters, the portrayal of women and men in social and domestic settings, the use of gender‐inclusive expressions, and the ordering of items in female/male symmetrical constructions. Despite the generally high level of sensitivity to gender issues displayed by most of the writers, the findings suggest that the ideal of a truly balanced treatment of men and women has yet to be achieved.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the earlier drafts of this article. The article is one of the outcomes of a project, ‘Gender Representation in ESL textbooks – The Cases of Hong Kong and Australia’, which was supported by a research grant from the Hong Kong Institute of Education.