An investigation of gender bias in Mauritanian secondary schools English textbooks: towards more equal representation

ABSTRACT

In recent years, gender-biased discourse has been one of the most studied phenomena in critical discourse analysis. In the Muslim and Arab contexts, most studies show that the depiction of women in textbooks is declining. This paper looks at the representation of women in the Mauritanian context by analysing four secondary school English textbooks. Because textbooks can be a site for cultural and political discourse, the study seeks to find out whether the Mauritanian government’s Pedagogic Institute’s goal of achieving equality between all components of the Mauritanian society is achieved for women in the textbooks. The study tries to explain gender bias by referring to societal views as well government policies regarding women. Bias against women is investigated using Norman Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model. The results of the study have shown biased portrayal of women in the textbooks. Men’s representation dominates women’s in most activities while women are more frequently represented only in domestic activities. It was further shown that, although government policies seem to support women’s empowerment, society’s views of women remain stereotypical which might explain their representation. More equal representationneeds to be sought so that textbook content goes in line with the government’s policies of empowering women.

KEYWORDS:

• gender bias
• critical discourse analysis
• Fairclough’s model
• textbooks
• Mauritania

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Malainine Ebnou

Malainine Ebnou is a 1^st year PhD student in Kanazawa University in Japan. He focuses on discourse analysis, particularly with relation to gender issues. He has conducted three studies in this field so far which included his master thesis. Malainine Ebnou is from Mauritania and has studied English culture and linguistics in his B.A studies. He has master’s degree in applied language studies and research in higher education from Sidi Mohamed ben Abdellah University in Fes, Morocco. His previous work is focused on gender issues in learning materials, how are they manifested, and how they can shape learners’ views about gender. Malainine Ebnou strongly believes that fairer representation of gender in textbooks can help reduce gender biases in society since many studies have shown that textbooks can act as vehicles for transmitting and normalizing certain discourses. A study he conducted in 2020 compared textbook representation of women in Japan with Mauritania. He is currently working on another study comparing gender representation in Japanese textbooks to Finnish textbooks.