[vol.2] Feature 2. An Analysis of Elememtary and Middle School Textbooks
WORKING WOMAN 2008. 1. 30. 15:40It is that 'women are not born but are made' implying that women are created by society from the time they are born. Factors contributing to the socialization of women in Korea include the culture, education, legal system, and customs. This report analyzes the extent of gender discrimination in education by analyzing elementary and middle school text books. It also considers what an education truly based on gender equality would include.
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Fundamental direction and problem of our education
- Korean women today define their lives within the segregation and prejudices rooted in traditional gender roles; they are taught not to extend beyond these limited boundaries. For example, textbooks always portray the mother as the housewife who stays at home, while the father is seen as the head of the household who has a job and participates in the broader society. In addition, men are portrayed as active and willing to assume leadership, while women are passive and emotional.
The few stories about women portray them in such roles as the filial daughter, the good mother, or the good wife. Women who have played important social or political roles are not portrayed or are undervalued.
For instance. Yoo Kwan_soon the woman who fought for Korean independence during the Japanese occupation, is called "our big sister" rather than "our heroine." In this way, Korean education today fails to instil1 a healthy perspective on gender roles. It also fails to reflect major social changes, such as increased female participation in all sectors of society.
(The following is an excerpt from 'A Study on Gender Roles Portrayed in Elementary and Middle School Textbooks. compiled by the Women's Development Institute.)
- Gender roles seen in textbooks
- The neglect of women
- Women's roles
As elementary school is a time when children begin to consolidate their knowledge of previously learned gender roles, elementary school textbooks must make a particular effort to teach equality in gender relations. Some stories in current textbooks are making this effort.
"The Non-discriminating Heart," a story in a fourth-grade ethics textbook, shows a group of students discussing and rethinking their ideas regarding gender discrimination. 'Our Equa1 Community' (fifth grade) includes a sketch cal1ed, 'My Father Prepares Dinner', which deals with the division of domestic labor in double-income households.
Apart from these efforts, however, textbooks on the whole still reflect traditional gender ro1es. For example. domestic labor is seen to be, without question, the responsibility of the mother, even if she is employed. This trend also appears in illustrations as pictures of mothers in aprons appear often and instill the idea that women must always be housewives.
Such gender role portrayals are evident particularly in social studies, a subject that focuses primarily on instilling an upright understanding of society and human relations. Yet, analyses or elementary school social studies textbooks show the following trends:
man = society woman = home man = producer woman = consumer man = worker woman = non-worker man = high status job woman = low status job man = leader woman = follower
This 'woman in the home, man at work' mentality is most clearly evident in the division in the vocational arts between home economics and technological arts. Through this division, women are taught about life in the home, while male students are taught about life in society, in particular about participating in the state's economic growth plans. For example, in instructions regarding computer usage, home economics textbooks describe computers as consumer products needed for leisurely use.
On the contrary, in technological arts textbooks the uses of computers in modern society are explained more broadly describing the uses of computers in various social organizations and explaining their potential uses.
- Women's employment
In elementary school textbooks a total of 111 men with jobs are portrayed, while only l6 women are shown. Twenty-two fields of employrnent are shown for men, while women's jobs are limited to eight fields, which include teacher, nurse, and receptionist.
Even within the same professional fields, men are shown to be in planning, manufacturing, and managing positions. Among teachers, for instance, the regular teachers are women, while men are principals or assistant principals. The same trends appear in textbook illustrations or photographs.
In illustrations. 41.7 percent of people with jobs are men, while 27.3 percent are women. Hence, the percentage for women fall far be1ow the actual female economic participation rate (47 percent in 1992).
- Women's ethics
In elementary school ethics textbooks, men and women appear in different ethical spheres. Female main characters appear more in the 'individual' sphere, representing the ethical value of respect for human life (40 percent), or they appear in the 'family' or 'neighborhood community' sphere representing the values of love for one's home (42.9 percent), love for family (38.9 percent), and etiquette (38.5 percent).
Female main characters appear less in the 'civic' sphere to represent values such as justice (12.5 percent) and obedience to the law (11.1 percent). as well as in the 'national sphere to represent such values as love for state (l3.O percent). These facts show that the ethical values traditionally emphasized for women have been 1ove, etiquette, and sacrifice; for men, justice and strong will.
In addition, depictions of female personality traits in elementary and middle school textbooks emphasize passivity, emotion, and sensitivity. Men, on the other hand, are portrayed as adventurous, active, and willing to take up new
Table 2: Male-female comparisons of adjectives describing textbook characters (data from 'Korean Education and Gender Discrimination,' a compilation by the National Teachers Labor Union)
M
F
industrious
3
1
beautiful
2
1
honest
3
0
neighborly
1
0
patient
1
0
praiseworthy
3
2
friendly
2
0
puts in effort
3
0
courageous
6
0
intelligent
2
0
good
2
4
brave
2
1
strong
4
0
prudent
1
0
healthy
2
1
broad-minded
6
0
hard-working
7
1
honorable
2
0
fair
11
0
firm
1
0
benevolent
2
0
independent
4
0
responsible
0
0
loyal
0
0
Total
61
11
challenges. Men are also futre-oriented, while women are past-oriented. These differences are evident when we compare the adjectives in Table 2 used in textbooks to describe male and female characteristics. As shown in Table 2, adjectives such 'courageous', 'strong', 'and hard-working' are frequently used for men; words like good. "pretty, 'meek', and 'praiseworthy' for women.
( Table 1) Proportion of women appearing in textbooks
Category
Elem Sch
Middle Sch
HiRh Sch
Narration
39.2%
31.9%
94%
Illustrations
39.1%
37.7%
24.4%
As seen in Table 1, the proportion of women appearing in currently used textbooks falls far below that of men. Particularly when textbooks introduce famous people, they are almost always men. Elementary school textbooks, for example, carry such stories as 'The Story of Choong Moo Gong' (third grade), The Story of Pavre" (third grade), and "Edison" (fourth grade). The situation worsens in middle school textbooks, in which 'An Anecdote about Curie's Wife' (seventh grade) is the only story with a female main character.
In addition, all historical leaders portrayed in textbooks are men. It is difficult to see accounts of women's private lives. Middle school textbooks include a total of only nine stories about women in history; high school textbooks eleven.
Even among these stories about women, only one -the story of Shin Sa-im-dang (a famous female artist during the Chosun Dynasty period) -portrays a woman who contributed a meaningful skill to her society. It is through these kinds of textbooks, which place more importance on men, that students learn to take for granted the alienation of women from all sectors of society, culture, and history.
- Teaching equal gender roles
- Reforming the textbook writing and editing process
- Greater female participation in textbook writing teams
Approximately 80 percent of textbook writing teams in sch001s at all levels consists of men, and there are some teams with no women at all. Such trends create the potential for an education based on a male-centered view and value system, as well as the alienation of female students, who form one-half of the recipients of this education. Textbook writing teams usually comprise research, writing, and illustration divisions, but increased female participation is particularly important in the writing field in order to influence the contents of our textbooks.
- Educating textbook writers about gender-equal roles
As important as increasing female participation in textbook writing is changing the ideology of the writers themselves. We need to create materials to educate writers about equal gender roles.
- Guidebooks for textbook writing
As current textbooks fail to depart from traditional ideas, we need to formulate detailed guidebooks regarding equal gender roles and use them as standards in the writing of textbooks.
- Participation of female specialists in the educational process
In promoting a gender-equal education, female education specialists must participate in every stage of educational reform. They must participate not only in the Committee for Deliberations over the Educational Process, but also in the general meetings and detailed discussions regarding reform.
- Improving the content of our education
- Presenting future-oriented female images
-We must portray women actively entering into advanced employment fields. In addition, we must change the tendency to depict a traditional gender role division of labor within the same job.
As more women are becoming active in regional communities and in national policy decisions, we must reflect images of such women actively taking leadership roles in society in our textbooks. The traditiona1 'female' areas of consumer and service activity must be expanded to include traditionally male fields such as po1itical activity.
-We must go beyond such traits as tenderness, gentleness, and delicacy to create stronger, more active, and enterprising female personality traits.
-More images of working mothers must be presented in a more positive light. The apron, used to symbolize the housewife, should appear only when appropriate.
- Presenting works of women writers and stories regarding famous women.
In order to encourage female students to develop positive identities, more works of women writers must be published. We must find and include stories with female main characters. It is possible, for instance, to modify fables or children's stories by changing the main characters into women.
- Actively investigating women in history.
We must revise historical writings to instill the understanding that historical development has come about through the cooperation of both men and women. We must begin active investigations into important women in history and to have fairer evaluations of the activities of such women.
- Actively depicting male-female cooperation in household labor
Changes in women's roles must be built on the premise of changes in men's roles. Male-female cooperation in household labor must be accepted as natural. We must present more images of the father taking care of the children, doing housework, and when necessary wearing an apron.
- Requiring home economics and techno1ogical arts for both male and female students.
According to the Sixth Educational Curriculum announced in 1992, home economics and technological arts are now requirements for both male and female middle school students.
But, the high school curriculum has not fo1lowed suit. To prepare students for modern industrial society and new, future-oriented gender roles, home economics and technological arts should be prerequisites for both genders. The contents of the home economics curriculum must also be modified to reflect the trends of modem society.