Sebuah Kajian Pustaka: ELTIN JOURNAL: p-ISSN 2339-1561 Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia e–ISSN 2580-7684 157 GENDER REPRESENTATION IN THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ENTITLED “PATHWAY TO ENGLISH FOR SMA/MA GRADE X” Alvia Nurrahma Ekasiwi1*, Ouda Teda Ena2 1lvnurrahma@gmail.com, 2ouda@usd.ac.id UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA ABSTRACT Understanding gender equality is crucial in education to reduce sexual bias and sexual violence. As the textbook is one of the most important teaching tools in ELT, it is important to represent the issues of gender equality. The representation of gender, however, needs to be planned carefully in order to avoid gender bias. This present study aims to analyze whether gender was represented equally or not in one of the Indonesian English textbooks. This research applied content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The data source of this research was taken from “Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X’. The data then was analyzed based on the eight-factors procedures as proposed by Amerian and Esmaili (2015). It was revealed that the textbook did not fairly present both genders. The representations of men in the contents of the textbook were found to be higher in numbers than the representations of women. Based on the findings, it is suggested that English book writers need to be more careful in using any content related to gender. They need to present both genders equally in order to promote awareness of gender equality. Keywords: Equality, Gender, Gender bias, Representation, Textbook A. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the subject of gender equality. Gender is described by Mengistie and Worku (2021) as the responsibilities and roles of women and men established in ethnic backgrounds, communities, and civilizations. Understanding the awareness of equality in gender can help people to avoid sexual bias and sexual violence (Banyard, Edwards, Rizzo, Theodores, Tardiff, Lee, and Greenberg, 2019). Looking at the importance of gender equality, the portrayal of gender used in English language teaching needs to be carefully planned. One of the most important tools in English language teaching is textbooks. Textbooks serve as the core source of knowledge (Rinekso, 2021). It is an influential aid that can assist the students in building their attitude towards life (Yonata and Mujiyanto, 2017). However, gender bias in English textbooks is not something new. The gender bias that usually occurs in education can be seen through several aspects, such as opportunities, learning and teaching materials, access, retention, and successful career choice (Yonata and Mujiyanto, 2017). Gender inequality or gender bias happens because it is already Ekasiwi & Ena: Gender Representation in English Textbook … 158 deeply rooted in our society, culture, and education (Sharma and Parika, 2020). Reflecting on that, it is important for ELT book writers to consider some factors in designing a textbook, like age, ethnicity, gender, class/levels, purpose, mental level, and so on (Ahmad and Shah, 2019). Remembering that textbooks play such a vital role in English language teaching, it is undeniable that the sensitive impact of textbooks can affect the students’ understanding of equality and national unity (Fahriani, Alek, and Wekke, 2019). Textbooks that are biased to one gender only might have damaging consequences on the learners (Gharbavi and Mousavi, 2012). The learning materials that represent one gender more than the others can unintentionally make the students insensitive to gender justice (Zarina, 2018). It is completely the book writer’s responsibility to create textbooks that equally represent both genders (Goyal and Rose, 2020). According to Amerian and Esmaili (2015), there were five categories of social roles by gender. The first one is male-monopolized. Male-stereotype refers to the role performed completely by men. The second category is male-dominated. It refers to the role which is dominantly performed by men. The third category is female-monopolized. This category refers to the role performed only by women. The fourth category is female-dominated. Female-dominated refers to the role which dominantly performed by women. The last category is gender-shared. It refers to the role which evenly performed by both genders. There were several previous studies about representation used in English textbooks. First, Yonata and Mujiyanto (2017) conducted research about the representation of gender in two English textbooks that were regularly used in Senior High Schools in Semarang. They aimed to describe the similarities and differences of gender representation from the two English textbooks. Their study used content analysis as the research method. The research findings revealed that the two English textbooks had a similar dominance of males over females in the exercises and images sections. However, there were some differences between the two English textbooks. The first textbook did not have equal representation in all portions of the book, whereas the second textbook had female as the greatest frequency that dominated the course materials, as well as identical shares of dominance in the reading passages and dialogues sections. Furthermore, Ena (2013) in his study about visual analysis on e-textbooks used in Indonesian senior high school revealed that Melanesian ethnic groups were less represented rather than the Austronesian and other groups. The English e-textbooks being analyzed also represented Islam and Christianity through the human images. Other religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism were only represented through images of objects. Based on his findings, it was also revealed that bias in gender and stereotype in gender were depicted in the images which serve as the illustrations of the English e-textbooks. Next, the study showed that most visual images were portrayed in the mid-SES group. Lastly, the findings also indicated that the English e-textbooks’ writer used English as the international language standard. Ena’s study used qualitative visual content analysis as his research methodology. In addition, Ahmad and Shah (2019) also did a study on critical discourse analysis of gender representations in several English textbooks used in Pakistan. Their study aimed to explore the gender representations in a Pakistani English textbook used for grade-5 ELTIN Journal: Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, Volume 10/No 2, October 2022 159 students in private and public schools. They used content and critical discourse analysis as the methodology of the study. The findings of their research revealed that the textbook was heavily prejudiced towards one gender, namely males. The male representation was far more prominent than the female representation. The textbook was also written to maintain male domination, both implicitly and explicitly. Moreover, Ena (2016) through his research about religion representation in Indonesian e- textbooks aimed to assess whether the e-textbooks visual images put up students’ religious diversity. Qualitative visual content analysis was used as the methodology of the research. The findings showed that several religions were not represented as much as the other religions. Their roles were also underrepresented in the e-textbooks being analyzed. In addition, Fahriany, Alek, and Weke (2019) conducted a study about gender representation in various English textbooks used in junior high school level in Indonesia. Gender bias, gender position, author's perspective, male and female roles, and explicit and implicit gender representation in English textbooks for MTs students were all covered in the study. Critical multimodal analysis and content analysis were used as the methodology of their study. The findings of the study showed that the representations of gender in the textbook were unequal. The book writers were having a lack of understanding about gender bias and gender stereotypes. Moreover, Ena, Yulia, and Prabandari (2016) conducted research about gender role and representations in Indonesian English e-textbooks for junior high school. Their research aimed to explore whether English e-textbooks for junior high school in Indonesia which were published by the Ministry of Education conveyed gender roles and representations fairly. To investigate the visual images which serve as the illustrations of the e-textbooks, the researchers used document analysis as the research methodology. The findings of their study showed that women were less represented than men in the e-textbooks examined. Men were dominantly portrayed as a more advantageous gender. Biased in representations and several conventionalizing women’s role were also portrayed in the e-textbooks. Thus, based on the description above the objective of this research is to analyze whether both genders are equally represented or not in one of the English textbooks used in Indonesia. One research question is proposed in this research, namely “Do men and women are represented equally in the textbook entitled “Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X”? B. METHOD This study used content analysis as the research method. According to Neuendorf (2019), an organized reading of a set of documents, imagery, and metaphorical matter that is not necessary to be perceived from the author's or user's perspective is known as content analysis. Content analysis is a technique for deciphering the meaning of words, dialogues, images, themes, and documents. Critical discourse analysis was also used in this research. Mullet (2018) has described CDA as a qualitative approach to describe, interpret, and explain how discourse constructs, carry on and validates social gaps. This framework will be useful to assess the ideologies of gender used in textbooks (Aljuaythin, 2018). This research implemented a three-dimensional model proposed by Fairclough (2015). According to him, there are three different stages of discourse analysis. The first one is description. Description stage talks about the analysis of the texts. The second one is Ekasiwi & Ena: Gender Representation in English Textbook … 160 interpretation. In the interpretation stage, the writer focused more on investigating the connection between the productive and interpretative discursive processes and the text. The investigation also refers to the situational context of the text. The last stage is explanation. This last stage is linked with social practice. It inspects the correlation between the discursive and social processes. Visual and textual data in the forms of pictorial, reading passages, and exercises were the types of data sources in this research. The source of data was taken from an English textbook used for senior high school students grade X, namely “Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X”. The textbook was written by Th. M. Sudarwati and Eudia Grace. Published by Penerbit Erlangga in 2017, this English textbook was purposely designed based on the revision version of the 2013 curriculum. The textbook contains 10 chapters with 203 pages in total. To collect the data, the writer used several steps. First, the writer read each chapter. Then, the data were identified based on the kind of activities, social role, semantic role, titles, generic construction, appearance, and pictorial representation. Lastly, the data were classified based on the eight-factor procedures proposed by Amerian and Esmaili (2015), namely gender bias in inclusion or exclusion, gender bias in the stereotypical role, gender bias in the semantic role, gender bias in titles, gender bias in order of appearance, gender bias in male generic construction, gender bias in types of activities, and gender bias in pictures representation. After gathering the data, the writer analyzed the data and divided it into the appropriate categories. Several descriptive tables were used to categorize the data based on the eight-factors procedures. Some other data were explained in writing form. C. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 1. Gender Bias in Inclusion/Exclusion Inclusion happens when one gender is depicted more than the other gender, while exclusion happens when one gender is depicted less or even none than the other one (Amerian and Esmaili, 2015). In Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X, the representation of men was more dominant rather than the representation of women. It is in line with the findings of Ahmad and Shah (2019) that the male representation was far more prominent than the female representation. This indicates that there were huge differences in numbers between men’s portrayal and women’s portrayal in several categories. Men were commonly mentioned with a more proper noun rather than women. Meanwhile, women have been shown to be addressed with common nouns and pronouns. However, there were also some categories in the textbook that tried to balance the representation of gender. The frequency of men’s portrayal and women’s portrayal in those categories did not differ significantly in numbers. According to Amerian and Esmaili (2015), this phenomenon indicated that there was an inclusion in one of the genders, which was women. 2. Gender Bias in Stereotypical Representation Stereotypical here means a sex role. According to Amerian and Esmaili (2015), sex stereotype refers to the definite concept of an appropriate role for gender in society. The gender bias found in the analyzed English text book are categorized into five categories as proposed by Amerian and Esmaili (2015). The frequency of social role based on gender can be seen on table 1. ELTIN Journal: Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, Volume 10/No 2, October 2022 161 Table 1. Frequency of social role based on gender Categories of Social Role Frequency Male-monopolized 17% Male-dominated 38% Female-monopolized 8% Female-dominated 0% Gender-shared 37% The social roles were dominantly covered by men. The social roles that were thought to be acceptable for men have also had higher status than the roles assigned for women. Based on Amerian and Esmaili (2015), these results could be categorized as a bias to one of the genders. From the table, it could be seen that male-monopolized in Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X amounted to 17%, while female-monopolized only reached 8%. Moreover, there were significant differences in numbers between male-dominated and female-dominated, which were 38% and 0%. However, there was a quite high frequency in gender-shared roles, which was amounted to 37%. These findings showed that although there was a lack of social roles assigned to women, the writers of the textbook still tried to balance the representation of men and women by creating social roles that could be assigned to both genders. 3. Gender Bias in Semantic Role In some chapters of Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X, men were usually illustrated as someone who has prestigious roles such as CEO, vice president, lawyer, engineer, doctor, professor, politician, scientist, teacher, athlete, or office worker. Meanwhile, women were illustrated as someone with a minor position, such as homemaker, housewife, or maid. However, sometimes they were also depicted as someone who had a prestigious position like men, such as dentist, architect, office worker, and teacher. These portrayals, however, bear little resemblance to those of men and they were rarely mentioned in the textbook. Based on Amerian and Esmaili (2015), these findings could be categorized as a bias in the semantic role. 4. Gender Bias in Title Amerian and Esmaili (2015) had mentioned that title was one of the elements which could portray gender bias. Furthermore, English is one of the languages which has different pronunciations for men and women and has also had a different pronunciation for married women (Ahmad and Shah, 2019). This phenomenon could lead to bias in gender representation (Ahmad & Shah, 2019). In Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X, there were significant differences in number between the representation of men’s titles and women’s titles. The representation of men’s title, which was Mr. has amounted to 77%. Meanwhile, the representation of women’s title was only 5% for Ms, 18% for Mrs, and 0% for Miss. For the rest, women were usually called without using any titles. This is in line with the findings of Ena, Yulia, and Prabandari (2016) that women were less represented than men in the e-textbooks examined. 5. Gender Bias in Order of Appearance Based on Amerian and Esmaili (2015), order of appearance refers to the chronological order in which each gender is portrayed, whether it comes first or later. The results of the Ekasiwi & Ena: Gender Representation in English Textbook … 162 analysis showed that men were more often to be called first rather than women in Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X. There were 56% occurrences where men were portrayed in the first position. Meanwhile, there were 44% occurrences where women were portrayed first than men. The results showed that bias in order of appearance was depicted in the textbook (Amerian and Esmaili, 2015). 6. Gender Bias in Male Generic Construction Amerian and Esmaili (2015, p.8) explained that male generic construction means “using the masculine nouns or pronouns in addressing both genders”. Ahmad and Shah (2019) also mentioned that using or expressing practices that favor the masculine point of view over the feminine point of view is referred to as male generic construction. Based on the results of analysis on Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X, it could be seen that the masculine point of view was more prevalent in the textbook than the feminine point of view. Name, appropriate nouns, and titles such as CEO, Mr., Sir, prince, king, him, and he have all been used to address men. In the meantime, women were referred to as wives, wives, women, widowers, old women, and mothers. Based on Amerian and Esmaili (2015), these results indicated that there was sex bias in the contents of the textbook. 7. Gender Bias in Activities There were numerous activities done by men and women in the textbook. Various contents used in the textbook showed that men were usually incorporated in outdoor activities rather than women. The types of activities that women did were also appeared to be lesser in position as shown in table 2. Table 2. Frequency of activities Activities Female Male Doing sports 5 25 Working in office 7 10 Playing music 0 7 Driving 1 2 Cooking 6 3 Personal activities 6 7 Shopping 1 0 Wearing expensive dress 1 0 Housework 9 1 Traveling 4 2 Total 41% 59% Table 2 shows that there was gender domination in the activities portrayed in the English textbook. Furthermore, women were usually depicted in indoor activities or activities that took place inside the house or building, such as cooking, washing dishes, cleaning the house, reading, watching stage plays, going shopping, sweeping the floor, and writing. However, in some chapters, several women were portrayed as someone who like to travel or did some sports, but still, the representations of women with those kinds of activities were limited. Meanwhile, men were depicted in outdoor activities such as playing tennis, playing volleyball, cycling, skiing, gardening, playing golf, playing basketball, playing football, playing hockey, swimming, snorkeling, and driving. Nevertheless, men were still depicted in some indoor activities such as working in the office, playing musical ELTIN Journal: Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, Volume 10/No 2, October 2022 163 instruments, painting, cooking, watching movies, and playing computer games but in limited frequencies. Based on Amerian and Esmaili (2015), these results showed that men were mostly assigned to positive activities and active roles, whereas women were assigned to passive activities and negative roles. It is in line with Yonata and Mujiyanto (2017) that the two English textbooks had a similar dominance of males over females in the exercises and images sections. 8. Gender Bias in Picture Representation Amerian and Esmaili (2015) have developed several categories of pictorial representation found in an English textbook. The categories were men only, more men, women only, more women, and equal share. From many of the pictures used in the textbook, all the pictorial categories were present as shown in table 3. Table 3. Frequency of pictorial representation Categories of pictorial representation Frequency Men only 63 (41%) More men 6 (4%) Women only 52 (34%) More women 4 (3%) Equal share 27 (18%) Total 152 100% Table 3 shows that most of the pictures were commonly depicted men’s pictures, with 63 pictures from the category of men only and 6 pictures from the category of more men. Meanwhile, there were 52 pictures from the category of women only and 4 pictures from the category of more women. Furthermore, there were 27 pictures that depicted equal share between men and women. Although the representation of men in the pictures used in the textbook was still frequently occurred than women’s pictures, it could be seen that the writers also tried to balance the representation of men and women by creating slight differences in numbers between men’s pictures and women’s pictures. The amount of frequency of the equal share pictures also showed that the writers of the English textbooks tried to balance the pictorial representation. But still, the frequency table clearly showed that there was gender bias in the pictorial representation. It is in line with Amerian and Esmaili (2015), these results showed there was an imbalance between men’s pictorial representation and women’s pictorial representation in Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X. It is in line with Fahriany, Alek, and Weke's findings (2019) that the representations of gender in the textbook were unequal. D. CONCLUSION The present research was an attempt to analyze the equality of gender in an Indonesian English textbook entitled “Pathway to English for SMA/MA grade X”. All the categories of eight-factor procedures namely gender bias in inclusion or exclusion, gender bias in the stereotypical role, gender bias in the semantic role, gender bias in titles, gender bias in order of appearance, gender bias in male generic construction, gender bias in types of activities, and gender bias in pictures representation were depicted in the said textbook. Based on the findings, it was clearly shown that almost all of the contents in the English textbook were dominantly covered by men. The representations of men in the contents of Ekasiwi & Ena: Gender Representation in English Textbook … 164 the textbook were found to be higher in numbers than the representations of women. Those representations could be seen through the pictures, exercises, or reading passages contained in the textbook. 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