CHAPTER I:

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Despite years of trying to eliminate sexism in education, recent studies across

the globe have still been finding considerable data that point to gender inequality in this

sector, specifically through the textbooks used to implement the curricula.

This charge of sexism is based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses in

different countries which strikingly portray a trend of imbalance in the instances and

manner of portraying males and females in textbooks. Sexism becomes apparent in

these textbooks in two ways. First is the uneven number of males and females in both

textual and graphical representations. Second is the stereotypical portrayal of both

genders that promote male dominance and female repression.

In terms of societal development, gender equality and education are intertwined

concepts. It is only through the assurance of equitable gender practices that the society

can maximize the advancement it envisions in all spheres of community life. The

educational sector as a social institution is vital to the assurance of such equity

between/among the genders not only for the sake of equity itself but of maximizing

socio-economic outputs. It is therefore an imperative for the educational sector to

perennially observe gender sensitivity and equity and avoid any form of bias or sexism

—both in terms of pedagogical practices and academic content. So assuring would

exonerate the educational sector from the perpetration of systematic and structural

1
assaults of one gender towards the other in the context of specific institutional

arrangements that concentrates power in the hands of the males.

In education, gender inequality may affect both males and females. However, the

latter often fall victim to deep-set and largely ignored norms that perpetuate unequal

gender relations. While the invisibility of women in the production and representation of

knowledge had been one of the many reasons of academic and cultural upheavals

instigated by feminists in the 1970’s, a considerable body of researches throughout the

last century still points to the disparity of representation between men and women in the

avenues of learning—especially in textbooks. Blumberg (2009) calls this continuing

situation as “the invisible obstacle to educational quality” given that biases are

camouflaged in taken-for-granted stereotypes and that in being nearly universal, it

affects the performance of girls and young women in various facets of the academe.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

has been trying to address this issue as early as 1949, recognizing that textbooks, aside

from their educational implications also have economic and ideological repercussions. It

has for its specific objectives the promotion of national educational laws on gender,

development of gender-sensitive curricula and textbooks, and the monitoring of

achievements and accomplishments on this issue.

Necessarily, the issue of gender parity in education was linked to more

comprehensive spheres of social development such as gender studies and economics,

2
thereby shaping programs initiated by UN organizations such as UNESCO and the

World Bank.

In recognition of this, the Philippine government, through Fidel V. Ramos, passed

Executive Order 273 otherwise known as “The Philippine Plan for Gender Responsive

Development” in 1995. The order institutionalizes the inclusion of gender sensitive and

equitable programs in all departments of the bureaucracy. Even earlier, the 1987

Constitution provides two prominent provisions for gender equality and the protection of

women. The first is found in the Declaration of Principles Article II Section 14 which

assures fundamental equality for men and women before the law. The second is

enshrined in Article XVIII-Labor: Section 14 which provides for the protection of women

in the workplace and the provision of facilities and opportunities for the development of

their full potential in the service of the nation.

In this line, the Department of Education explicitly states in its Gender and

Development Framework the elimination of “all forms of gender biases in the curriculum,

in the textbooks and instructional materials, and in classroom practices, programs, and

projects.” And again, the Department adapts gender and culture sensitivity as one of the

many principles governing the implementation of the K to 12 Curriculum.

In as much as textbooks are a basic medium of knowledge, for some families,

the only medium from the academe, and the most cost-efficient for governments and

3
private institutions alike, they become a vehicle not only for acquiring knowledge but

also for internalizing social and necessarily gendered roles.

Gender issues in education and literature arise as issues of just and equitable

representations of these roles which would necessarily be internalized by its target

audience. Literary selections, open as they are to various interpretations, is one of the

most effective means of communicating standards, value, and ideologies. Gender roles

are therefore adopted by students and sexist indoctrination often carried out even

outside of the teachers’ intentions and set objectives. This internalization of gendered

depictions in textbooks forms part of what is known as the hidden curriculum, the

content being a constraining factor of what and how boys and girls envision themselves

and what they can become.

Thus many factors warrant an inquiry into textbooks and how they become media

of biases through unjust representation, total absence of/disregard for either sex in its

content, processes or any other means, whether the authors are aware or otherwise.

After all, 80-95% of classroom time is spent using textbooks and teachers base most of

their academic decisions on them. Textbooks being an important part of educational

process across countries should therefore be given the monitoring they require,

especially so if we wish to maximize women’s participation in all spheres of the society

for the sake of both their dignities as human persons and to assure long-term economic

progress.

4
 As an educator, the researcher understands the importance of representation in

any form of literature. For one, mere representation in any work is a recognition of one’s

existence and a validation of her/his dignity as a human person. Second, character

representation in books provides readers with life inspiration, motivations, and

templates for behavior. So do non-representation and misrepresentation. The same is

true with textbooks and the students who inevitably read them. It is therefore crucial for

teachers to be as vigilant and careful about what their students read or what they make

them read. This stands especially true when it comes to sexual and gender

development issues that require utmost sensitivity and strong sense of equity. With

these should come the realization that students often become what they read. So if

boys tend to get the lion’s share of representation in textbooks, where do girls and

women stand? Do they even exist? What templates should be given them in today’s

fast-changing social milieus and climate? Thus, the concern about the textbook’s

gender system and the necessary inquiry it leads to.

Conceptual Framework

No textbook can perfectly provide all the requirements of all classroom settings.

Thus, they should be used judiciously and with an adequate level of sensitivity.

However, educators in the field are not always as confident about what to base their

judgments on and qualify their decisions with. Therefore, the necessity for frameworks,

whether generic or theme-specific as in the case of this paper, that will guide the

5
conduct of evaluation. For this, various scholars have suggested different approaches

for a more systematic and objective evaluation of textbooks. These often come in the

form of checklists based on generalizable criteria.

This study hinges itself on gender mainstreaming both as a form of theory and a

gendered political and policy practice. As a form of theory, gender mainstreaming is a

process of revision of key concepts in order to grasp more adequately a world that is

gendered, rather than the establishment of separatist gender theory. As a political

practice, it is a way of improving the effectiveness of mainline policies by making

gendered assumptions, processes, and outlines visible. Thus, gender mainstreaming

slices through the dilemmas in feminist theory and practice, opening up new avenues of

debate on how to resolve those dilemmas. It does so by addressing five major issues:

the tensions between gender equality and mainstream, the nature of gender equality

invoked by mainstreaming, the debates as to the relationship of gender mainstreaming

with other complex inequalities previously determined by feminist theory, the

relationship between expertise and democracy, and the implications of the trans-

national nature of gender mainstreaming (Walby, 2003).

Gender mainstreaming brings an explicit discussion of gender into the forefront

of policy discussions. It thus touches on the study at hand in two levels. First, gender

equality and sensitivity are explicitly invoked as one of the standards and principles that

guide the continuous development of the K12 Curriculum of which the book under

6
scrutiny belongs. Second, as an evaluative process, the study at hand sheds the lights

of gendered discussion on an educational artifact usually taken as non-gendered.

Concerning sexism in textbooks, Rosenberg (1973) was one of the earliest

scholars to propose one such checklist. He listed 20 Yes/No questions that point to

various instances of sexism. His checklist concerned sensitivity to prejudices, under-

emphasis and overemphasis of sexual worth, depiction of both male and female adult

members of minority groups, clear group representation of individuals, and provision for

students’ examination of their own attitudes and behaviors, among others.

The task of evaluating textbooks for sexism and gender bias is traditionally done

through qualitative analysis of characters and their representation of the genders. The

main intention of this approach is to expose gender stereotyping by collecting and

analyzing data on sample passages from textbooks based on pre-established

categories of traditional/status roles. While this approach had greatly helped in forming

the corpus of literature on textbook analysis on sexism, they “could easily be perceived

as subjective and incapable of demonstrating recurrent bias in representations of

gendered roles and identities” (Brugeilles & Cromer, 29).

Thus, the necessity for another approach that ensures better reliability upon

which this study may rely upon as a clear basis and framework. This is found in the

methodology developed by the International Network for Research into Gendered

Representations in Textbooks (RIRRS) which combines traditional quantitative analysis

7
with qualitative inquiry into the gendered representations contained in the concerned

books.

While the RIRRS method is used in analyzing a huge collection of books across

all subject matters, it will be helpful in the task at hand since the textbook under study is

composed of four modules for each grading quarter.

Statement of the Problem

This study seeks to analyze DepEd’s Celebrating Diversity through World

Literature (Learners’ Module in Grade 10 English) for gender parity and propose

improvements later on. It hopes to accomplish this by answering the following

questions:

1. How are gender relations presented in textbook in terms of:

a. age
b. designations
c. activities
d. characterization/attributes
e. interactions
f. and location?
2. What differences are found in the representation between males and females in

each criterion in each module?

3. How significant are the differences in representation between males in females in

each module?
4. What activities in equality of the sexes may be developed to enrich the existing

modules of the textbook?

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

8
 The DepEd textbook under scrutiny is composed of four modules which contain

six lessons each. Each lesson features a literary selection from canonical world

literature texts ranging from ancient myths to 19 th Century short stories and novels.

The present study shall cover and analyze all literary selections by employing the

RIRRS method separately for each module. This will allow the researcher to identify the

parts of the book that may be in need of modification or supplementation to balance

gender representations.

Graphical illustrations shall also be included in the survey because the gendered

roles their characters portray are more obvious and more easily noticed than their

textual counterparts.

Significance of the Study

This study aims to produce a significant contribution to the Philippine educational

field as it tries to find ways on addressing a concern often overlooked in textbooks:

gender bias.

Specifically, it shall be beneficial to Grade 10 teachers who also wish to address

the issue of sexism, albeit unconsciously on the parts of the authors, in the textbook and

thereby improve their instructional endeavors.

Moreover, students shall benefit from this study however indirectly since it is their

interest this paper seeks to primarily ensure.

9
 Hopefully, future researchers on related topics shall find this work a valuable

academic resource. Also, the findings contained herewith are hoped to be taken into

consideration by the Department of Education and their partner publishers.

Definition of Terms

Activities. This criterion refers to various individual engagements of characters

such as school, occupational, domestic, buying, caring, leisure, social, routinary,

negative and/or successful activities.

Age. In this paper, this is used as a criterion referring to grouping characters into

adult men and women, children girls and boys, and age-unspecific groups.

Attributes. This criterion refers to both material and immaterial possessions a

character is represented to have such as school materials, occupational items, domestic

items, money, food, leisure and sport equipment, and physical and psychological

characteristics, among others.

Designation. This refers to the ways a character is presented and addressed in

the textbook. They may be addressed according to first name, surname or title, or using

family-related terms such as father and mother, or addressing them through their

occupation or profession.

Gender Bias. This pertains to stereotypical representations of both genders

and/or the imbalance in representation that favors one gender over the other in terms of

instances.

10
 Gender Equality. This refers to the assurance of equal representation or the

lessening of disparity thereof of both genders, both textually and graphically in

textbooks.

Interactions. This criterion refers to the social activities of characters and may

include occupational, school, cooperative, affective, social, and violent interaction,

among others.

Location. This criterion pertains to the placement of characters in the lesson and

in the overall organization of the textbook.

RIRRS Method. This is an approach to reviewing textbooks for sexism and

gender bias developed by the International Network for Research into Gendered

Representations in Textbooks that aims to reveal a textbook’s gender system. It uses

quantitative method to study and compare the material with a view to studying gendered

identities and gendered social roles as a whole versus simply identifying sexism or

discrimination against one sex.

Textbook. By legal definition of RA 8047 of 1994, this refers to “a book which is

an exposition of generally accepted principles in one (1) subject, intended primarily as a

basis for instruction in a classroom or pupil-book-teacher situation.” (Sec. 3, par. b). In

this paper, the term refers to the textbook released by the Department of Education for

English 10 entitled Celebrating Diversity Through World Literature as printed Rex

Bookstore, Inc.

11
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents a survey and reviews of related literature on sexism and its

ties with and implications on educational practices, and more specifically, its

proliferation on the development of textbooks.

RELATED LITERATURE

12
 Gender Parity. Any attempt to understand gender relations should be framed

within the bounds of sociological thought, taking gender as a key component to the

social structure, a concept that allows the organization of life into consistent and

predictable ways.

One frame of view which considers gender into account is structural

functionalism, a macrosociological perspective that is based the premise that society is

made up of interdependent parts, each of which contributes to the functioning of the

whole society. As such, values held about gender roles, marriage, and the family are

central to functionalist assertions regarding social equilibrium and are held as different

assignments to men and women arising out of functional necessity—as in the

subsistence of preindustrial societies on hunting, gathering, and farming as gendered

roles. This pattern eventually led to women’s dependence on men, making the latter’s

roles more valued that the former’s.

The contemporary family is anchored on the same functionalist principles where

spouses assume complementary, specialized, and non-overlapping roles. Husbands, as

fathers, usually take on the instrumental role which is geared towards the physical

integrity of the family by providing food and shelter and linking the family to the world

outside the family. Complimentarily, the wife, as mother, takes on the expressive role of

cementing relationships and providing emotional support within the household.

13
 While it had provided and continues a theoretical framework for most families,

the conservative theoretical perspectives of functionalism disallows it to account for a

variety of other family systems and to keep pace with social changes that gear towards

more egalitarian attitudes for gender roles in the household. Moreover, research shows

that specialization in household tasks by gender in the contemporary family is more

dysfunctional than functional and that a multiple roles and overlaps on them have

caused high levels of gratification and personally enriched lives.

The development of sexism and the consequent drive for gender parity may be

traced upon such social structuring and organization that leads to the development of

normative roles of behavior. While necessary, these norms may become too rigid

overtime and lead to the stereotyping and the eventual discrimination of members

based on the stereotyped traits the members share. The assignment of such negative

stereotypes leads to sexism, the belief that the status of females is inferior to the status

of males. While males are not immune to the negative consequences of sexism,

females are more likely to experience it because the status they occupy is more

stigmatized than those of men. For example, women had been thought of being more

likely to occupy social spaces inside and outside the home that are associated with less

power and less or no pay. Coupled with beliefs of biological inferiority, sexism is thus

reinforced and used to justify discrimination towards women.

14
 Struggles against sexism roots from the feminist upheavals of the late 1800’s

that saw the rise of movements pushing for women’s suffrage and equal rights with

men, among others.

Inevitably, feminist movements brushed against morality and sparked ethical

debates on the gendered nature of morality. Thinkers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, John

Stuart Mill, Catherine Beecher, et al, have raised questions on “women’s morality” as

early as the 18th century. Such questions include: Are women’s ‘feminine’ traits the

product of nature/biology or are they instead the outcome of social conditioning? Are

moral virtues and as well as ender traits connected with one’s affective as well as

cognitive capacities, physiology and psychology? Should men and women adhere to the

same morality?

Wollstonecraft opined that moral virtue is unitary; that women are obligated to

practice the same morality men practice. Women are by no means doomed to be less

virtuous than men. This morality, for Wollstonecraft, is determined by reason. Thus, both

girls and boys should receive the necessary rational training that would allow them to

develop their mental faculties. That after all is what separates them from non-human

animals.

John Stuart Mill lamented the moral double standards held for men and women

where women are assessed differently from men. He argued that “women’s morality” is

simply the result of systematic social conditioning. To laud women on account of their

15
complex abnegation of themselves is merely to compliment society for inculcatin in

women those psychological traits that serve to maintain it. Women are taught to live for

others; to always give and never take; to submit, yield, and obey; to be long-suffering.

They are also taught to demure to men because they are not as smart and strong as

men. At root, there is but one virtue, human virtue, and women as well as men should

be pushed to adhere to its standards. Then, and only then, will society be as just and

prosperous as possible (Mill, 1970).

Into the 20th century, feminist ethics became care-focused and was quick to

notice instances of female subordination and the tendencies of patriarchal societies not

to properly esteem women’s ways of thinking, writing, working, and loving.

As Kimura points out further, countering sexism should not be a mechanical

listing of things that should not be done. Nor should it be remedied by pushing women

to be placed in positions of leadership without her being ready or just so that the

organization would not appear sexist. Rather, there should be a continuous

development of theoretical work around women and the preparation of women for tasks

the patriarchy and the oppressive economic systems have barred them from.

Way into the 21st century, some commentators believe that the women’s

movements of the 20th century have been so successful in combating gender inequality

that we have entered a “postfeminist” era. While it is undeniable that feminist political

movements have made tremendous gains for women over the last 100 years, social

16
scientific evidence demonstrates that there are still large inequalities between men and

women when it comes to areas like income and wealth, political power and

opportunities, legal rights, sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, and overall status in

society. This is even more the case in countries outside of the United States and

Europe. As long as gender inequality and oppression exists, feminism and feminist

thought will continue to matter to millions of people throughout the world. Moreover,

feminist intellectuals continue to develop cutting-edge and nuanced understandings of

the social world that enrich the power and possibilities of social theory.

To measure gender equality, international agencies look into the representation

of men and of women in a range of roles, often done through the use of indices, one of

which is the United Nation’s Gender Inequality Index (GII). The GII is built on the

framework of better exposing differences in the distribution of achievements between

men and women. Its criteria include maternal mortality ratio, adolescent birth rate, share

of seats in parliament, population with at least some secondary education, and labor

participation rate. As a measure of the human development costs of gender inequality,

the higher the GII value, the more disparities between females and males. Generally,

counties with higher inequality index also experience more unequal distribution of

human development.

As of 2013, the Philippines ranks 78 th among 187 countries at 0.406 GII and is

classified as having medium human development in terms of gender (Online). Slovenia

17
leads this ranking at 0.021; followed by Switzerland at 0.030; Germany at 0.046;

Sweden at 0.054; and Denmark at 0.056.

Meanwhile the World Economic Forum (2013) listed the Philippines as the 5 th

country worldwide in terms of closing the gender gap, making it the leading country in

Asia and the Pacific in global rankings. In 2013, the country scored a higher ratio in the

wage equity survey and has a greater participation of female professionals and

technical workers apart from making investments in women’s health and education.

Another agency that measures the gender parity among nations is Social Watch,

an international network of citizens’ organizations in the struggle to eradicate poverty

and the causes of poverty, to end all forms of discrimination and racism, and to ensure

an equitable distribution of wealth and the realization of human rights. Social Watch puts

the Gender Equity Index of the Philippines at 76 which places it at 18 th place with

Australia and Latvia in a pool of 149 countries. This is a relative high GEI and verifies in

general, women enjoy the same opportunities as men, that their situation improves, and

that they enjoy a good level of participation in the economic and political areas. This is

not to say that the Philippines should stay where it currently is because equally alarming

is its pace of development indicator pegged at 3.84 which is among the lowest among

the countries.

Just how far feminist movements have affected international policy-making

cannot be underestimated. The United Nations, for example, expresses in its Charter

18
the achievement of international cooperation… in promoting and encouraging respect

for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex,

language, or religion and founded the Commission on Status of Women just a year after

its foundation. It has since worked with other branches of the United Nations in

addressing the concerns and needs of women. The UNESCO, for one, has

commissioned numerous studies into the role and performance of female students in

schools. Moreover, women are again given UN’s attention through the explicit provision

of the Millennium Development Goals (2015) for the promotion of gender equality and

the improvement of maternal health.

Consequently, these legislations trickle down to national policy-development,

urging governments to push laws that advance women’s rights and well-being. In the

Philippines, an over-arching law on women is found in Republic Act 9710, otherwise

known as the Magna Carta of Women. This law formalizes the provision enshrined in

the Constitution and affirms that women’s rights are human rights, thereby opening up

equal employment opportunities for both males and females in whatever field, including

the military. It further grants women special leave privileges from work and allots 5% of

an agency’s budget for gender and development purposes.

Several such laws have been enacted to further protect women. They include the

Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 (R.A. 7877), Anti-Rape Law of 1997 (R.A. 8353)

and most recently, the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004(R.A.

19
9262). R.A. 7877 seeks to protect women by defining how sexual harassment is

committed in the workplace and in any education or training environment. R.A. 8353

reclassifies rape as a crime against persons and inserts it into the provisions of the

Revised Penal Code, ensuring a reclusion perpetua/reclusion perpetua to death to any

person found guilty, depending on the gravity of the act. R.A. 9262, meanwhile, is a

comprehensive law that further broadens women’s rights and protection from violence in

various spheres, especially in the domicile.

However, sexism comes in various forms and may not always be explicit. Glick

and Fiske (2001) coined the term “benevolent sexism” for subjectively favorable but

patronizing attitudes towards women. This form of sexism accomplishes the task of

idealizing women while actually subordinating them as men’s dependents. Whereas the

more hostile form of sexism punishes women for not fitting into men’s molds for them,

benevolent sexism rewards conformity to those standards. Nonetheless, both forms

complement each other and operate through the preservation of gender stereotypes.

The dangers of benevolent sexism is similar to that of hostile sexism in that both

pin women down to limited and limiting roles that zap women’s career ambitions and

perpetuate favored dependence on men as “knights” and “providers”. Politically, this

eliminates women from power circles and pushes them outside the avenues of decision-

making, even for themselves and for the workplace.

20
 The concept of benevolent sexism may also be applied to gendered relations

within the educational systems. Whenever teachers and the system itself tend to be

patronizing towards their female students, placing them in unjust shackles of

stereotypes and limiting roles, they also become agents of sexism.

Theoretically, sexism may also be perpetrated against males. In theory, Benatar

calls this as second sexism and cites various disadvantages for males such as state

policies that put greater burden on men to be conscripted into military service, leniency

towards female soldiers, state’s general disregard for domestic violence against men,

and again, leniency of legal courts towards female offenders. This theory is, however,

difficult to uphold (1) since many of the charges brought forth by Benatar are logical

consequences of the patriarchal system itself, and (2) because sexism as a process is

academically thought of as occurring systematically and structurally in bringing about

disadvantage towards the other sex. While the author has yet to answer such counter

arguments, he should nevertheless be credited for bringing the issue to the limelight.

A clearer application of Benatar’s hypotheses may be found in a 2013 report

released by UNICEF’s United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) entitled Why

are boys under-performing in Education: Gender Analysis of Four Asia-Pacific

Countries. The report focused on the performance of boys in the academe in Malaysia,

Mongolia, The Philippines, and Thailand. The report recognizes that despite significant

progress in reducing gender disparities in East Asia, statistics have started manifesting

21
a decreasing access to education for boys, thereby the inability to meet many basic

requirements for many of them.

The studies surveyed by the report indicate that “there are systemic factors that

negatively influence boys’ educational achievement” (p. 3). In the Philippines, for

example, Torres (2011) observes that despite the achievement of gender parity in

schools and regardless of wealth indices, girls are still more likely to be enrolled than

boys, making the number of out-of-school boys aged 5-15 years twice that of same

aged girls. The same also applies in terms of both simple and functional literacy among

Filipino school goers. This is further reflected on the National Achievement Test (NAT)

scores where girls have outscored boys in the last five years.

The report acknowledges that its findings on the under-performance of boys are

not universal across all settings and that this issue is by-product of such factors as

socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicity, and geographic location. Nonetheless, the issue

remains an important facet of the United Nations’ Education for All (EFA) goals and the

assurance of access for girls and boys alike not only in education but in economic and

societal spheres.

More concretely, gendered interactions within schools tend to make girls more

aware of their inequality with boys. For instance, when different behaviors are tolerated

for boys because “boys will be boys”, schools actually perpetuate the oppression of

females. While girls tend to be more academically successful than boys, various studies

22
suggest that schools continue to socialize boys and girls in ways that work against

gender equality (Chapman, 2001, Online).

Understanding this relationship between boys and girls in school go back to the

basic concept of the difference between gender parity and gender equity. The first is

attained when the same proportion of boys and girls enter the education system,

achieve educational goals, and advance through the different cycles. While necessary,

parity is but the first step to the bigger concept of equality. Meanwhile, equity is to be

understood as the process of treating boys and girls fairly. This does not mean treating

all learners the same but providing treatment that is different but which is considered

equivalent in rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities. To this end, measures must

be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages that prevent girls and

boys from operating on a level playing field. Such measures include scholarships,

camps and constant monitoring for progress.

Measures of gender parity or equal participation in the educational sector are

showing an overall improvement in the big picture. Despite trends of high repetition and

overage children in some countries, the primary school completion rate and school life

expectancy rates have been increasing in the last four decades boys and girls.

Similarly, girl’s enrolment has been increasing at a faster rate than that of boys, helping

close the gender gap at the primary level (UNESCO, 2012). At the same time,

completion rates both boys and girls have also increased around the world.

23
 Similarly, the gross enrolment ratios around the world are rising in the

secondary level despite a polarized picture. Some 43% of countries have less than 80%

of gross enrolment rations while another 27% has 98% or more in terms of GER.

Nevertheless, the parity index has been showing a general upward trend, although the

pattern has not been steady across the various regions.

Around the world, the criteria for the promotion of gender equality and women

empowerment have been showing upward trends. While this is good news, international

communities comprehend that much and more should be done to maximize gender

equality. The rates of change can be accelerated with people working together in

changing biased perceptions and improving gender parity and equity practices across

societies.

Similarly, all sustainable development policies and frameworks, at the global,

regional, national, and local levels, must include an explicit commitment to gender

equality and the realization of women’s and girl’s human rights and capabilities.

Women’s collective action and full and equal participation in all aspects of decision-

making related to policy development and monitoring must be supported and are central

for achieving results.

Contemporary Philippine Literature in English. The Spanish cession of the

Philippine islands to the United States after 1818 brought forth tremendous

consequences, one of which is the introduction of English and the production of

24
literature in this language. This was facilitated by the establishment of the University of

the Philippines in 1908, making English the medium of communication and instruction in

many schools and the popular literary language into the 1930’s.

With the continued use of English was the development of Philippine literature in

it way into the contemporary world. Usually, contemporary literature pertains to all

literary productions from the 1960’s onwards.

In fact, one of the earliest anthological publications of the Philippine PEN was

released in 1962. However, contemporary writers actually began being productive after

the fall of the Martial Law in the early 1980’s, themselves having been raised in the said

period.

Groyon (2007) explains that while contemporary writers did not know the chaos

of preceding wars, they have nevertheless experienced another form of violence in the

martial law years and the succession of political dramas that unfolded with its fall.

Meanwhile, Dalisay, as quoted in Groyon, characterizes contemporary writers in

English as likely to have been formally trained as writers in university creative writing

programs and creative writing workshops and that they continue to write despite the

unpopularity of Philippine fiction in English and despite the dearth of publication venues.

He furthers that that are often middle-class who tend to be liberal without being radical

and who easily pick up on literary trends and innovations. The Don Carlos Palanca

Memorial Awards receives the most numbers of entries for poetry and short story in

25
English. In recent years, the novel in English has also seen a steady rise in number of

entries.

For critic Isagani Cruz, contemporary literature is definitely changing in content

and form, in the number and class of writers, and in the apparent merging of the oral

and written literature.

In terms of demographics, Philippine fiction in English continues to be centered in

Metro Manila, although major universities outside the capital have also started

producing new breed of writers in their creative writing programs. Generally, Filipinos

write in American English. Inevitably, however, these writers subvert the language in

various ways in what Garcia (2005) aptly calls as postcolonial hybridity. Proof to this is

the incorporation of words, phrases, and sentences in Philippine languages into the text

to capture the precise messages that can get lost in translation.

It is important to note Garcia’s critique of Filipino poetry, and Filipino literature

whether be it in Tagalog, English, or other Philippine languages hybrid and postcolonial

because it implies a certain push away from the Western literary canon into a search for

meaning in the niches of national literatures and along the continuous play of history,

culture, and power.

Thus, from a postcolonial standpoint, contemporary literature in English helps us

to accept the hybridity of our identities and lives, making us aware of how we are using

the past in order to find ourselves in the present.

26
 This finds concreteness in the development of speculative fiction in the Philippine

literary scene. Several anthologies, like “Alternative Alamat” (Visprint, Inc& Rocket

Kapre Books, Chikiamco (ed.), 2011) and “The Best Philippine Speculative Fiction:

2005-2010 (UP Press, Alfar and Alfar (eds.), 2013) have produced tales that seamlessly

incorporate the past in narratives set in the present. For instance, the stories compiled

by Chikiamco all portray the existence and co-mingling of pre-colonial deities into the

modern world.

As a specific genre of storytelling, speculative fiction explores the ‘what if’s’ and

covers the types of stories classified under fantasy, science fiction, horror, magical

realism and surrealism. It deals with observations about the human condition from a

different lens and thereby provokes thought and wonder about an unstable future and a

mythic past. It is from this particular group of emerging literature that this research

hopes to find pieces that may be incorporated into the Grade 10 lessons. More

specifically, the works of Dean Francis Alfar have been noted to portray female

protagonists and advance the feminist agenda.

Feminism. Over the course of its academic history which roughly began in the

late 19th Century, feminism has turned its lenses on several perspectives that helped

shaped its meaning today. What started out as a revolution against unequal contract

and property rights, chattel marriage and a man’s ownership of his wife and children

soon turned into an activism for political power—especially in the form of suffrage, a

27
right ratified for women in the United Kingdom in 1918 and for their counterparts in the

United States the following year.

Today, feminism has evolved into several – at times conflicting—forms that vary

in academic foci and battlefields in terms of asserting women’s rights. For instance,

while radical feminists focus their attention on the politico-economic spheres, liberal

feminists look into the personal space of women take and attend to those interactions

as spaces for spurring social transformation. hooks (2000) simplifies feminism as “a

movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.” This definition implies

that sexism itself, and not men, is the common enemy hindering the way towards an

overall restructuring of society so that our nation would be fundamentally anti-sexist.

Thus, at the core of feminist movements and theories is the core assumption of

and struggle for political, economic, and social equality between men and women.

Showalter identifies several models or spheres of feminist criticism depending on

the scope such criticism addresses. In the biological model, criticism is focused on how

femininity and women themselves are reduced to mere bodies. Meanwhile, the linguistic

model looks into the language of sexism and gender representation through language.

The psychoanalytic model identifies gender differences as the bases of the psyche,

focusing on the relation of gender to the artistic process. Lastly, the cultural model reads

texts in social contexts, acknowledging class, racial, national, and historical differences

28
as determinants among women, but offering a collective experience that unites women

over time and space.

As a literary movement, feminism in whatever form seeks to analyze the spaces

and instances whence the patriarchy economically, politically, socially and

psychologically oppression. Moreover, they seek to criticize books through the concept

of gender as a cultural product, rather than a biological one. Most importantly, such

criticism is always geared towards global change through gender equality.

Thus, for feminist critics, the purpose of reading is the critique of patriarchal

language to expose masculine ideology and the consequent gender system it creates in

any piece of work. By so exposing the system, feminist critics also take it upon

themselves to revise our way of considering history, society, and literature so that

neither male or female is taken as normative, but both are seen as equally conditioned

by the gender construction of their culture.

Proponents of feminist care ethics stress that traditional moral theories,

principles, practices, and policies are deficient to the degree they lack, ignore, trivialize,

or demean values and virtues culturally associated with women. Carol Gilligan, upon

studying twenty-nine women who had abortions, critiques Kohlberg’s moral

development theory as male-biased. For Gilligan, the moral voice of these women

emphasized relationships and responsibilities, a language Kohlberg’s traditional ethics

of rights and rules would not comprehend.

29
 Due to the complex nature of feminist care-focused ethics, several discourses, at

times conflicting have been proposed. Sadra Lee Bartky (1990) argues that women’s

experience of building men’s egos and binding men’s wounds ultimately disempowers

women. She claims that the kind of emotional work practiced by women in some

service-oriented occupations causes them to disconnect from their own base of feelins

and sentiments. While women feel energized with the emotional work they do as in the

case of mothers, such subjective feelings of empowerment are not the same as the

objective reality of actually having power. This illusion of empowerment often upset

women when they fail to please the men in their lives or when themen do not notice how

much pain their words and deeds sometimes cause women.

Partly in response to calls for an improved feminist ethics of care, NelNoddings

has developed an ethics that valorizes the virtues and values traditionally linked to

women. For Noddings, ethics is about particular relationships between two parties and

that true care does not consist in proclaiming one’s universal love for all humankind.

These and other tenets central to feminist care ethics should be just as present in

the public realm as the private realm. Virginia Held insists that justice cannot exist

without care. She clarified this point by explaining that the even before the polis came to

be, families survived not because there were political rules, laws in them but because

there was enough care among the members to deliver basic needs and protect one

another’s interests.

30
 Meanwhile, from Marxist point-of-view, the question of sexism and women’s

oppression must be approached from its material basis (Kimura, 1979). That is, from the

day to day experiences of the working class which clarifies the oppressive and

exploitative conditions women are situated in. It is from these experiences that the task

of exposure should begin. Kimura subscribes to Engels’ idea that the introduction of the

bourgeois division of labor within the family was historically the first step in the

breakdown of primitive communist society and the development of slavery and class

society in general.

Further, the sexual oppression of women under capitalism bears a particular

character related to the level of development of class society which capitalism

represents. Generally, women are viewed in class struggles as either a cheap source of

labor or a large part of the reserved army of unemployed. This is exemplified in the

ability for the capitalist to expand into new industries using women. For example, the

growth in manufacturing in such industries as the garment industry in which male tailors

used to make one suit per day. That developed into sweat shops where five women

make 100 suits per day. The communication industry, the food processing industry, and

the clerical industry are all characterized by their low wages, poor working conditions,

and the mass employment of women in them.

Indeed, the rise and fall of women’s status in the society in relation to men is

shaped by the changes in modes of economic production. With the development of

31
modern industry, for example, the family structure where women’s labor was valued

because the home was the place of production of goods like food or clothes for the

community was torn apart. This is so since such goods may now be purchased from

stores, produced away from the home. Thus, the women were once again reduced to a

servant in the house, her labor being consumed daily without recognition or

compensation. The dishes, clothes, and house she cleaned became dirty daily and the

food she shopped for and cooked became consumed at each meal.

The outright call for theorizing brings one to phenomenological understanding of

feminism. The process begins with the assumption that feminist work examining and

critiquing everyday knowledge practices would be extremely valuable to anyone

undertaking an analysis of knowledge. Such epistemological considerations may be

found in inquiries that question the relevance of gender to how one would likely claim

and attribute knowledge, look into the associations of gender into methods that are

knowledge-producing, and analyze the morality of social conventions pertaining to

gender.

In addressing these questions, feminists have accumulated substantial evidence

that our actual knowledge attributions and practices of authorization privilege men and

help sustain sexist and racist institutions. Moreover, they have documented concerns

about the production of knowledge itself in academic circles. These include the

acceptance rate of papers by women, the situation of boys in girls in classrooms, the

32
proliferation and endorsement of theories that affirm the naturalness of current sex roles

and the use of sexist metaphors in understanding non-gendered phenomena, and lastly,

outright sexism in research communities.

A counter movement to sexism, in both theory and practice, is the promotion of

gender equality. It pertains to the achievement of same rights and opportunities across

all sectors of society for men and women. This includes economic participation and

decision-making, and when the different behaviors, aspirations and needs of women are

equally valued and favored (Online, 2015).

Thus, the focus has shifted from solely women’s cares themselves to promoting

equality between the sexes. What this means is that the language shifted from extolling

the body and virtues of women to make them equal with, or better than, men to

promoting both sexes as of equal rights and standing before the laws of the civil society.

The feminist perspective provides productive avenues of collaboration with

sociologists who adopt other theoretical views, especially conflict theory and symbolic

interaction. The feminist perspective is compatible with conflict theory in its assertions

that structured social inequality is maintained by ideologies that are frequently accepted

by both the privileged and the oppressed. Thus, feminists work through various avenues

to increase women’s empowerment and freeing women from the rule of men in many

settings.

33
 The feminist perspective further leads to an analysis of oppression on a wider

scale and relates gender to race and class in analyzing subjugation. The gender-race-

class linkage in analyzing social behavior originated with African American feminists in

the 1960’s, opening a wider perspective on how women are alike and how they are the

same. This attention to socio-cultural diversity emanating from gender-race-class

critiques has reverberated throughout sociology and has spurred interdisciplinary

researches, even opening opportunities for men to view themselves as gendered

political beings. It has also opened the identification other sites of oppression such as

inside or outside the family, the church, sexual orientation, age, or disability.

Evaluating Textbooks. As a commodity, a political object, and a cultural

representation, a textbook is the site of struggles and compromise. This is reflected in

the way they are produced, their contents selected, distributed and used in classrooms

(Shannon, 2010 in Mohammadi & Abdi). As political artifacts that so shape students

mindsets, textbooks warrant dynamic evaluation to investigate on their suitability and

appropriateness.

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), textbook evaluation is basically a

straightforward, analytical matching process: matching needs to available solutions.

For Kulm, Roseman, and Treistman (1999), the first step in evaluating a textbook

is to identify the learning goals with which the textbooks should be aligned. By

standards, these learning goals must reflect a consensus on what all students should

34
know and be able to do and that they must be clear, specific and unambiguous. Content

analysis comes next. The judgment on whether the material actually addresses these

learning goals is based on two main ideas: substance and sophistication. The distinction

between activities that correspond only to the general topic of the content learning goal

and activities that actually address its substance is based on a careful study of the ideas

contained in that learning goal. The process should continue further to the evaluation of

quality of instructional support for the included content with the purpose of knowing how

well each activity addresses the targeted learning goal.

This is especially necessary because textbooks have often been met with

disapproval from the teachers who implement them in their classrooms. At times, they

are even described as a “road block”, a “millstone”, and a “straitjacket” (McGrath, 2006).

Allwright’s seminal article “What do we want teaching materials for?” (1981)

serves as the locus for much of our current understanding of textbook use. In the article,

Allwright argues forcefully for the limited use of textbooks since learning is far too

complex to be satisfactorily catered for by a pre-packaged set of decisions embodied in

teaching materials. For Allwright, textbooks may be understood from two perspectives.

First, they may be viewed as a bridge filing in between the teachers’

academic deficiencies. Second, they may be viewed as tools developed by experts and

should therefore be implemented. These views have met various criticisms because

35
they treat both teachers and students an incapable of adapting textbooks to suit their

needs.

At any rate, textbooks should still be evaluated for various purposes. Ellis (1997)

identifies two types of textbook evaluation: macro- and micro-evaluation. A macro-

evaluation calls for an overall assessment of whether an entire set of materials has

worked. Meanwhile, a micro-evaluation submits a particular teaching task to a detailed

empirical evaluation. A series of micro-evaluations can provide the basis for a

subsequent macro-evaluation.

Sheldon (1988) has offered several other reasons for textbook evaluation. He

suggests that the selection of an ELT textbook often signals an important administrative

and educational decision in which there are considerable professional, financial, or even

political investments. Moreover, the evaluation process allows teachers and

administrators to discriminate among the multitude of textbooks available in the market.

As well, it allows teachers as end-users to familiarize themselves with the content and

organization of the textbook.

Another reason for textbook evaluation is that it can be very useful in teacher

development and professional growth. It moves teachers from impressionistic

assessments to evidence-based assessment, that is to a more scholarly work

concerning the instructional materials they use. For Williams (1983), textbook evaluation

is part of the necessary judiciousness teachers should practice in the classroom since

36
no textbook can cater equally to the requirements of every classroom setting. Besides,

the sheer labor-intensiveness of developing classroom materials, the pressures of

heavy timetables, and the highly restrictive nature of most teaching situations

nevertheless force the teacher to rein in his or her reservations, and to choose a book

which only approximates to the needs of the course. Certainly, it is not always a happy

compromise. In the public school system where textbooks are imposed on schools, the

discontent is no less acute. Ironically, students often view teacher-generated materials

which may be more relevant their needs as less credible than an inadequate textbook

(Sheldon, n.d.).

For Ansary and Babaii (2002) as quoted from Mohammadi and Abdi (2014),

evaluating textbooks is a responsibility for teachers since teachers and students both

turn to textbooks for reliable advice when making informed academic claims and

decisions.

In terms of textbook and instructional materials in general, Sadker (2013)

identifies seven forms of bias. These include invisibility, stereotyping, imbalance and

selectivity in presenting issues or groups of people, the tendency of instructional

materials to gloss over unpleasant facts and events in history, fragmentation or when a

group is physically or visually isolated in the text, linguistic bias, and cosmetic bias

which pertains to suggestions that a text is bias free but beyond the attractive cover

actually contains bias.

37
 The task of textbook evaluation often requires checklists for a more efficient

facilitation. Scholars working in the field of English language teaching as either a

second language or a foreign language have attempted to create such checklists that

will guide attempts at evaluating any language textbook. Mukundan and Nimechisalem

(2012), developed a 13-point checklist for textbooks in Malaysia. The criteria include

relation to syllabus, methodology, suitability to learners, physical and utilitarian

attributes, supplementary materials, macro-skills, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation,

and exercises. These were validated through the help of experts sitting in a focus

discussion.

For Wong (online) checklists ensure that textbooks are examined from several

angles. Since a textbook often provides a framework or serves as a syllabus for a

course, it is imperative that the content match the underlying approach and needs of the

program in which it will be used. For this she provides checklists for linguistic content,

miscellaneous content, learner concerns, teacher concerns and practical concerns.

RELATED STUDIES

There is a wide array of studies that have investigated the proliferation of sexism

in educational delivery, and more specifically, in the production and usage of textbooks.

Most of these studies were sponsored by international organization such as the United

38
Nations Education and Sciences Organization (UNESCO) and were conducted not only

in language/literature textbooks but across all subject areas and across the continents.

McKinney (2005) explored the powerful role played by textbooks in shaping the

apartheid curriculum and the current use of textbooks in South African schools. In her

introduction, she explains that diversity is one of the greatest challenges facing

democratic South Africa, with its wide range of people and its deep legacy of social

inequality. Apartheid education in South Africa was notorious for its role in enforcing

social inequality and white supremacy with schooling being powerfully abused to shape

and distort the values, attitudes, and identities of all learners. Textbooks, in particular,

were key in justifying and promoting an apartheid ideology which was racist, sexist, and

classist.

McKinney delved into the question of textbooks in terms of representation of the

social world in relation to race, gender, social class, rural/urban location, and disability.

She found out that the general trend is the over-representation of males in

representation to females. Four of the six reading schemes represent either boys or

girls on their covers with a minority of covers representing both boys and girls together.

For example, a book analyzed showed 34 main characters, only 5 of which were girls.

Gender representation in main characters is particularly significant because it is these

characters who are the main sayers and doers.

39
 This study is similar and helpful to the study at hand since both analyze gender

representation in the textbooks and draws upon both qualitative and quantitative

analyses in the interpretation of data. The scope of analysis and criteria used set the

two studies apart. McKinney’s research use and interrelate broader concepts such as

race, social class, and location. The present study is rather limited to smaller criteria

such as age, activities, designations, and the like.

An influential analysis of sexism in ESL textbooks by Porreca (1985) traces the

term sexism to normalization and standardization of sexist terms in the English lexicon.

Thus:

“The role played by language in maintaining and strengthening sexist

values, however, is less widely understood. This is probably because linguistic
sexism is much more deeply rooted and far more subtle than other forms of
sexism. Indeed, language is such an involuntary function and so intimately
intertwined with culture that it is often quite difficult to stand back and take an
objective look at one’s own language. Language itself is essentially a neutral
vehicle of communication which can be used to convey a wide range of attitudes
and values. However, all speakers tend to use and create language which is
flattering and useful to themselves. Those with enough power, authority, and
influence can standardize usage. The creation of dictionaries helped to speed up
the process of standardization. Since dictionary writer male and the social
system was a patriarchy, English received a strong infusion of male-as-norm
elements.”

Porreca’s study sheds light into the dynamics language, gender representation,

and power in textbooks. It is more theoretical than most of the studies reviewed and

presents ways on how language is used in creating gender systems not only within

40
books but within the larger society through these books. Her findings will be helpful in

the qualitative analysis of stories to be used as bases for the new lessons and shall be

used vis-à-vis feminist literary criticism.

In literature, feminism is used both to describe women’s images and to champion

their causes for equality. For example, Perdiguerra (2004) analyzed six Palanca Award

winning short stories in English under the lights of feminism and postcolonialism and

found women as images fusing cultures, histories and psychology. This points to the

impossibility of oversimplifying women into stereotyped description.

Meanwhile, Pascua (2007) found a more explicit support for the political and

socio-civic of feminism in the plays of Henrik Ibsen. In three plays, Ibsen explicitly pits

his female characters against stereotypes and pushes them for self-fulfillment, self-

assertion, and gender equality.

The same may not be said about Filipino folktales where “male and female

characters adhere to the widespread concept” of male domination under which, males

are portrayed as “self-made” and women “unimportant” (Africa, 1999).

Similar to the analyses made by Perdiguerra, Pascua, and Africa, this study kicks

off from the assumption that pushing for gender equality in all areas of socio-civic life

not only helps the economy through female participation but also improves the standing

condition of human dignity in general.

41
 Rosemberg, et al (2008) explores this theme of “fighting sexism in textbooks” in

both national (Brazil) and international levels by examining a wide array of literature

from the 1960s to 2008 focusing discussion on the changes and tensions in the

implementation of policies geared towards the elimination of sexism in textbooks.

One of their many findings is the unanimity of criticisms across countries that

“textbooks continue to be sexist” generally through overrepresentation of the male

characters and thereby the underrepresentation of female characters or the use of

linguistic overtures that promote the polarization of roles of men and women.

The situation in Brazil proved no better with notable researches reporting sexist

imbalance in the form of underrepresentation in both texts and illustrations, portrayals of

less prominence and individualization (having been tied to domestic functions), and

descriptions of submissiveness.

Rosemberg synthesized the findings of scholars around the world on gender

representation and textbooks. Thus, it gives a good picture of the global status in terms

of gender equality. Most of the studies reviewed corroborated one another’s findings of

ironic leaps in the balanced presence of men and women and texts and the proliferation

of oft-ignored stereotypical gender systems, on the other hand.

In a wider perspective, a similar trend has been reported by Blumberg (2007) in a

report commissioned by the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report for the

Education for All 2015 for the UNESCO.

42
 As a comprehensive survey of the status of gender equality in the educational

field as reflected in its textbooks, the study reviews studies from across the globe on the

matter. Sample studies were taken from Syria, India, and Romania; from the United

States to China and developing countries in Latin America.

Among his findings are reiterations of earlier studies such as the consequentiality

of bias in textbooks despite its being less dramatic, that such bias is often hidden in

plain sight being camouflaged in taken-for-granted gender stratification systems, and

that no impact studies have been conducted to measure its effects especially in poorer

countries.

He nevertheless enumerated the similarities of the forms of bias across the

globe. First is its prevalence in all countries at all levels of development. Second is the

persistence of gender bias in all countries surveyed over a 35-year period. Third is the

uniformity of bias content which often take the form of under-representation, use of

males to mean all of humanity, and the proliferation of gender stereotypes on activities

whether occupational or domestic despite seismic shifts in the roles taken by women in

the past few decades.

Rosemberg kicks off from the EFA Dakar Goals that dictated the elimination of

gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender

equality by 2015.

43
 In its attempt to look into gender equality in education, the study inevitably

touched on an issue that affects that equality: gender bias in textbooks, and

consequently, in the curricula. This overlap is inevitable in as much as textbooks take a

huge time of students' interaction time and reflects the content of the implemented

curriculum.

What the survey finds is not far from those of Rosemberg in Brazil: gender bias

thrives, however hidden behind calcified and taken-for-granted gender stratifications

and roles.

While no impact studies have been conducted to measure the actual effects of

subtle gender bias in education on employment and the workplace, there is a global

pattern of gender bias being prevalent in all levels of economic development in the

forms of under-representation and stereotyping both language, roles and traits of males

and females.

Rosemberberg (2008) explores and reviews studies on sexism and the influence

of the feminist movement on the policy development and production of textbooks.

She further reaffirms Stromquist's (2007) finding that globally, national

educational agencies' efforts have been insufficient in addressing issues of gender and

gender equity in their respective curricula. She observed further that the issue of sexual

stereotyping was not taken up by major researches into textbooks and that such

attempts at looking into textbooks have had very little impact on academic production.

44
This failure owes largely to the absence of any unified plan to create legislations and

follow them up across time for monitoring and evaluation.

In Brazil, for example, the feminist movement interacted with the social forces of

the 1970’s such as the military dictatorship and the conglomeration of progressives from

Marxist backgrounds, churches, the lest, and trade unions. This interaction brought the

issue of sexual stereotyping in schools to the forefront of discussions. Nevertheless,

researches on sexism in textbooks remained sporadic in Brazil, having been written by

individual authors who did hold any theoretical or political debate on the matter of

textbooks.

Rosemberg’s study is wider in scope since it looks into connections between the

curriculum and the textbook. This study limits itself on the books and the gender system

created by the representations within it. Nonetheless, the study also forms a

background for the study at-hand and the direction it wishes to take.

Amini, et al. (2012) observes a similar failure to curb gender bias in Iran as

reflected in Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. The researchers

called into question the apparent gender bias in the said textbooks because of their

apparent effect on the performance of young women in college entrance test. Like many

other studies, Amini’s found out that women remain unrepresented in the scrutinized

textbooks—an implicit confirmation of women’s unimportance and a failure to reflect

Iran’s emerging demographic where the population of females has started overtaking

45
that of males. The analysis also revealed that the textbook still depicted both men and

women in traditionally stereotypical biased occupations—reserving professions such as

engineering, medicine and management to men while the women were depicted as

teachers and dress makers. At the conclusion, the researchers concede that “sexism…

is so deeply ingrained in our culture, our language, and our subconscious that it is

difficult for us to avoid the production of language teaching materials.

The picture that Amini’s study paints is not far from the finding of Rosemberg and

others. Compared to the study at hand, both analyze English textbooks for gender

equity and are triggered by an apparent bias in the concerned textbooks.

Meanwhile, an earlier study by Mineshima (2008) explored the same themes in

the EFL textbooks used in Japan. She found out that although gender imbalance was

observed, both genders were assigned approximately the same number of subjects,

occupations and interests. Similarly, the picture representations treated both genders

almost equally, leading the researcher to conclude that ELF textbooks in her country

exhibited fairly egalitarian representations of the two genders. For example, in terms of

gender visibility, the males outnumbered females by only 6.4%, making the

representations almost equal. Looking further, the disparity between male and female

characters in each lesson did not exceed 5.2%.

This study serves to prove the possibility of achieving a certain level (if not total)

of balance between the genders in terms of their representations in textbooks.

46
 A study with similar findings may be found in Dominguez (2003) and her analysis

of the New Interchange Intro (Richards, 2000), an English for Foreign Language (EFL)

student book written for the use of young adults coming from diverse cultural

backgrounds in Toronto, Canada.

Dominguez finds Richards’s book as balanced in terms of both textual and

graphical representations and devoid of hidden bias. As well, both genders were

presented to take on similar occupational roles with the author having been “very careful

to avoid stereotypes”.

These findings on Richards’ are corroborated by a comparative analysis carried

out by Ghorbani (2009) on three EFL textbooks used in Iran: American Headway (Soars

and Soars, 2001), Interchange (3 rd Ed.), and Person to Person (Richards, et al., 1995).

Ghorbani concludes that “Interchange among other textbooks seems to be in a more

satisfactory and acceptable level of manifestation of female and male chararacters…

(12)”.

Meanwhile, a survey report on gender differences in educational outcomes was

compiled by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency P9 Eurydice in

Brussels (2009) to map the current situation of gender parity in education in Europe.

This report supports findings across the countries that gender is only one of the

factors that affect achievement across subject matters. Data analysis shows that at the

earlier levels, boys and girls aren’t far from each other in terms of mathematics and

47
science. Significant difference only becomes obvious when it comes to reading where

boys are more likely to become the poorest performers. This serves to prove that other

factors such as socio-economic status and family background should be taken into

consideration in treating with under-achieving students.

Gender issues do not usually come at the forefront as topics in a textbook.

Rather, they are often a by-product of the necessarily-gendered representations used in

textbook narratives and illustrations. Thus, they are most often beyond the teachers’

objectives and intentions. Mkuchu (2004) uses the hidden curriculum and social

learning theories as framework for his analysis of primary textbooks in Tanzania,

explaining that learners imbibe hidden bias through socialization. He furthers that such

hidden messages create a societal disregard for gender equality.

His findings confirm what a number of UNESCO studies have previously raised:

the stereotyping of women to domestic roles, the assignment of men to leadership

positions, and their ownership of properties of high value, and therefore the lack of

revolutionary role models for girls in the textbooks.

The hidden curriculum function is better highlighted in textbooks of non-language

subjects like Math and Science. Yasin, et al. (2012) proves this in their analysis of Qatari

primary mathematics textbooks. Despite a notable diversification of roles along

traditional masculinity and femininity, the researchers noted among others that males

48
are still represented as having the more powerful occupation, and in effect, more

respectable and accountable over women who can similarly hold the same occupations.

As early as 1986, UNESCO had commissioned a book written by Andree Michel

which unambiguously addressed sexual stereotyping in children’s literature and school

textbooks. The publication, entitled “Down with Stereotypes: Eliminating sexism from

children’s literature and school textbooks” hoped to be used a s a practical aid to

tracking down and eliminating prejudice in school books.

This work serves as an important guide for textbook writers, publishers and

analysts because it comprehensively outlines the mechanisms of the proliferation of

sexism in school textbook and children’s literature. More importantly, it outlines brief

guidelines for the production of non-sexist publications.

Michel sets two criteria for the detection of sexism in textbooks. First, sexism is

present when men and women of whatever age are depicted in stereotyped activities

that do not accurately reflect the possible diversity of their roles. Second, even if the

representations are in harmony with what majority of people actually do or engage in,

sexism still prevails whenever the books merely “show existing situations but neither

criticize it nor offer any alternative”. The second amounts to an acceptance of the

depicted stereotype thereby reinforcing them. Researchers reviewed by Michel across

countries further agree that “the mere elimination from textbooks of stereotyped

women’s and men’s roles is not enough, and that a more positive approach must be

49
taken by promoting non-traditional roles for men and women, which are not yet

prevalent in society.”

As a guidebook, Michel’s work explores the methodologies used by researchers

across countries in analyzing sexism. Michel promotes an analytical approach to

identifying sexism in texts and illustrations. This approach comprises of checklist that

can be divided into three parts: quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and linguistic

analysis for sexism. The study at hand kicks off from these suggestions and builds on its

framework in analyzing DepEd’s Grade 10 English textbook.

In 2009, UNESCO released a methodological guide on the analysis of textbooks

for sexism. The study places grave importance to textbooks and reiterates its centrality

to educational policy. As such, the guidebook argues, textbook development should

incorporate national and international policies to address educational, economic, and

political dimensions, include policy makers, publishers, distributors, and donors, and

involve the whole of the teaching profession, together with school’s internal and external

stakeholders.

Practically, the guidebook aimed to show how gender inequality is constructed in

textbooks through the curriculum and to give educators involved the tools to revise

textbooks or use existing textbooks critically.

Much of the study at hand anchors its methodologies (as discussed in full in the

next chapter) in the suggestions made in the book. The guidebook calls it a new

50
approach to differentiate it from traditional methods which exposed gender stereotyping

only (without consideration of broader categories such as roles, priority, language use,

etc.) and which centered only on passages from the textbooks in identifying sexist

stereotypes. Such approach opens itself to a methodological bias in as much as it only

focuses on stereotypes and fails to take sexist omissions into account. As well, it tends

to be too narrow because they do not allow for rigorous comparisons and that they do

not identify overall themes and trends of sexism which may also be gleaned from the

gender relations in the book.

The new approach was proposed by the International Network for Research into

Gendered Representations in Textbooks in view of the above. This approach uses a

quantitative method to study and compare large amounts of material with a view to

studying gendered identities and gendered social roles as a whole, thereby revealing

the textbook’s gender system. Two main factors are subjected to analysis: characters

who are the key elements of literature even in the shortest textbook exercises and their

roles, statuses, and attributes; and illustrations which express characters’ traits

differently and because they have a higher profile as they take up more space on the

page. Comparing the statistical results will give a clear view into the book’s gender

systems.

Synthesis

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 To synthesize, several observations become apparent about the relationship

between sexism and textbook production in the related studies presented above.

Most of the studies reviewed in the paper corroborate one another’s findings and

paints the impression of continued gender disparity in the books in one form or another.

For McKinney, Porreca, Rosemberg, Stromquist, and Amini, this disparity was found in

the imbalance in the number of representation themselves. For Mkuchu and Yasin, this

imbalance was exacerbated by the employment of stereotypical representations. Thus,

they still point to the proliferation of sexism in various forms in textbooks throughout the

world. Other findings include stereotyped representations of males and females that put

the former in positions of power and stations of privilege, little or non-representation of

women in texts and graphics, proliferation of sexism through often-ignored gender

double standards, and the insufficiency of national governments’ efforts in addressing

sexism in education, among others.

On the other hand, it is possible to find a book that observes gender equity, or at

least approximately so, in representation as in the conclusions of Mineshima,

Dominguez, and Ghorbani.

While they vary in findings, these studies form a good part of this paper’s

endeavors and readily serve as bases and patterns for methodology and statistical

treatment.

52
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES

The design and procedures of the study at hand flows from its twofold objectives

of (1) analyzing DepEd’s Grade 10 English textbook for sexism and gender bias and (2)

proposing supplementary lessons that may augment the gender gaps wherever they

may be found.
Research Method
53
 The proposed research undertaking shall employ both quantitative and

qualitative procedures respectively.

In the first phase, quantitative analysis shall be used in coming up with a

thorough description of the textbook’s gender system, thereby identifying the parts

where biases exist. This shall be made possible by the comparing and contrasting of

various indications gleaned from statistical-comparative treatment of data. This will

expose the “mechanisms by which one gender is discredited or discriminated against”

(Promoting Gender Equality, p. 30).

The quantitative analysis shall be aided by inventories of characters presented in

both textual and graphical/illustration forms. Several such inventories shall be designed.

The first shall classify the characters into men, boys, age unspecified males, women,

girls, age unspecified females, and sex unspecified characters. The second group of

inventories shall focus on characters’ names/designations, activity/occupation, physical

and psychological attributes, and interactions.

In the second phase, qualitative procedures shall be used in (1) determining

themes of lessons where the bias exists, and (2) analyzing literary works that may be

used as alternative/supplementary texts for the specific lesson under the light of feminist

criticism which seeks not so much the advantage of women over men but the

achievement of equality for both genders especially in the civil sphere of societal

existence and the undermining of concepts and practices that promote otherwise.

54
 Lastly, the study shall propose improvements to the modules by introducing

sample lessons that utilize the analyzed texts. This phase shall follow the usual

procedures of development and evaluation.

Materials Used
In the first phase, the study shall analyze DepEd’s textbook for Grade 10 English

entitled Celebrating Diversity Through World Literature for sexism and gender bias.
In the second phase, it shall analyze sample short stories from contemporary

Philippine literature in English. Namely, they are “The Kite of Stars,” “How Rosang Taba

Won a Race” both by Dean Francis Alfar, “Beneath the Acacia” by Celestine Trinidad,

“The Alipin’s Tale” by Raymond G. Falgui, and “Bearing Fruit” by Nikki Alfar.

Data-Gathering Instruments
For the purposes of the first phase, this study shall rely on the tools developed by

the International Network for Research into Gendered Representation in Textbooks.

This approach uses the quantitative method to study and compare materials with a view

to studying gendered identities or gender systems rather than merely identifying sexism

or discrimination.
This is done by selecting characteristics to be included in the tabulating matrix.

These characteristics may include sex, age, designation, actions, attributes, and

relations with other characters. These may further be grouped into sub-categories. For

instance, sex and age may be categorized into women, men, boys and girls.
Then, these characteristics and categories are put in grids to allow counting and

recording of their instances in the textbook. Upon completion, the grids are further

condensed into summary tables which will allow a better assessment of parity and
55
gendered representations. Necessarily, qualitative interpretation should complement

these statistical data.

Development Procedure

As an attempt at development research, the study at hand aims at making both

practical and scientific contributions in the field of pedagogy. Thus, its ultimate aim is not

to test the complex relationships between educational theories and practices but the

construction of workable interventions that will survive in real life contexts.

For this paper, the attempt to develop new lessons to improve existing ones

depends on the formative evaluation done through the quantitative analysis of gendered

representations in the book. Thus, first step after exposing the book’s gender system is

to identify which module/s of the textbook require necessary attention. For instance, in

which module are women most sparsely represented in?

The next step will be to analyze the said module and its lessons for their theme

and competencies and matching them with the short stories similarly analyzed for their

theme using the light of feminism.

This new lessons shall then be subjected to expert validation for content and

technical validity.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The methodology adapted by this study requires two statistical processes: the

counting and tabulation of gendered characteristics and their sub-categories and the

descriptive statistical comparison of differences.

56
 The first shall employ grids and tabulated categories to facilitate the counting of

gender representations. This will then be presented in bar graphs since the heights and

lengths of its bars will more clearly represent the frequencies of the data.

The second shall dwell on the descriptive comparison between the represented

characteristics of males and females. This will be facilitated by the t-test which assess

whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other. This

analysis is appropriate whenever comparison of two groups is desired. The formula for

the t-test is a ratio with the top part being the difference between the two means. The

bottom part is a measure of variability or noise of the scores. This formula is essentially

another example of the signal-to-noise metaphor in research. Once the t-value has

been computed, the table of significance will be used to test whether the ratio is large

enough to say that the difference between the groups is not likely to have been a

chance finding. The usual risk level or alpha level in most researches is at .05. This

means that five times out of a hundred, you would find a statistically significant

difference between the means. Given the alpha level, the degrees of freedom, and the

t-value, the table of significance may already be used to determine if the t-value is large

enough to be significant.

Thus, the objective for this part is really the computation of disparity between the

instances of representation for male and female characters and the recurring system of

gender roles portrayed in the textbook.

57
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