Representation of women in US history texts and the perception of female politicians.

Abstract

There is a distinct lack of research identifying the relationship between the way Americans learn about women and the way they perceive them, despite the fact that the root cause for the discrimination women experience in both of these fields is traditional gender roles. As such, this study sought to determine the correlation between the lack of female figures included in American history curricula and the students’ level of gender bias towards modern female politicians. To do so, I used a mixed methods approach that combined content analysis with a survey to study individuals’ perceptions of female politicians and the U.S. history text they learned from. The textbook studied significantly underrepresented women, while discussing men to a much greater extent. Additionally, gender bias was clearly present in the population surveyed. A moderate negative correlation exists between women’s representation in textbooks and students’ level of gender bias against female politicians.

Keywords

• textbooks
• gender bias
• female politicians
• u.s. history