How gender fair are German schoolbooks in the twenty-first century? An analysis of language and illustrations in schoolbooks for mathematics and German.

Autor/inn/en	Moser, Franziska; Hannover, Bettina
Titel	How gender fair are German schoolbooks in the twenty-first century? An analysis of language and illustrations in schoolbooks for mathematics and German. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Wie geschlechtergerecht sind deutsche Schulbücher im 21. Jahrhundert? Eine Analyse von Sprache und Illustrationen in Schulbüchern für Mathematik und Deutsch.
Quelle	In: European journal of psychology of education, 29 (2014) 3, S. 387-407Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0256-2928; 1878-5174
DOI	10.1007/s10212-013-0204-3
Schlagwörter	Einstellung (Psychologie); Altersunterschied; Geschlechtszugehörigkeit; Frau; Geschlechterrolle; Geschlechtsspezifischer Unterschied; Lehrbuch; Mathematik; Diskriminierung; Mann
Abstract	Schoolbooks convey not only school-relevant knowledge; they also influence the development of stereotypes about different social groups. Particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, many studies analyzed schoolbooks and criticized the overall predominance of male persons and of traditional role allocations. Since that time, women's and men's occupations and social functions have changed considerably. The present research investigated gender portrayals in schoolbooks for German and mathematics that were recently published in Germany. The proportions of female and male persons in pictures and texts were examined and their activities, occupational and parental roles were categorized. Going beyond previous studies, two criteria were added: the use of gender-fair language and the spatial arrangements of persons in pictures. These results show that schoolbooks for German contained almost balanced depictions of girls and boys, whereas women were less frequently shown than men. In mathematics books, males outnumbered females in general. Across both types of books, female and male persons were engaged in many different activities, not only gender-typed ones; however, male persons were more often described via their profession than females. Use of gender-fair language has found its way into schoolbooks but is not used consistently. Books for German were more gender fair in terms of linguistic forms than books for mathematics. For spatial arrangements, we found no indication for gender biases. The results are discussed with a focus on how schoolbooks can be optimized to contribute to gender equality. (ZPID).
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie, Trier
Update	2026/3