Gender Stereotyping and Gendered Discourses in a Hong Kong Primary English Textbook Series

This study analyzed the content and language of a currently published Hong Kong English language textbook series for grade one students to find out if gender stereotyping and gender bias still exist. The results of the study showed that males and females were almost equally represented and were portrayed in a similar range of activities. Females were also more visible in both illustrations and texts. The phenomena of females being underrepresented and male dominance occurred in the previous textbook studies do not exist in the examined textbook series, though males were still mentioned first when two nouns were paired for sex. Future studies that involve examining primary textbooks of different grade levels and interviewing the textbook authors are necessary so as to obtain a more confirmed conclusion that textbook authors nowadays are more aware of avoiding gender stereotyping and gender bias in the textbook contents and illustrations.