Gender representation in Moroccan public primary school textbooks

Abstract EN

Childhood is of paramount importance in inculcating in students a host of values that they learn and acquire through the books they are exposed to.

thus, this paper aims to discuss gender representation in moroccan primary school textbooks by focusing on the occupational roles women and men are assigned.

this is because gender equality is one of the prerequisites for the empowerment of women.

all grades are covered, from the first to the sixth grade.

since primary school students are at an early age, they need to develop fair perspectives about the occupations and statuses males and females will have in the future.

needless to say, these textbooks convey some subliminal messages that need to be recognized and taken into account.

it should also be noted that women in the Moroccan society embark on diversified jobs as those done by men.

legislatively, women also enjoy various rights and positions.

all these developments for the empowerment of women need to be reflected in the textbooks.

thus, i analysed reading messages, activities, and dialogues page by page.

both qualitative and quantitative content analyses are used to excavate the contributions of these textbooks to the empowerment of women, to demystify the roles assigned to males in comparison with females, and to cast light on the type of occupational roles males and females fill.

this study allows us to draw many implications that textbook designers need to consider in designing textbooks.

it has been found out that females are less represented in the studied textbooks; accordingly, more light should be shed on updating and recasting the materials in these textbooks.