1. By:-
Mrs. Asma Hassan
Subject Specialist (English)
Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore

2.  Gender refers to the socially constructed roles and
responsibilities of women and men.
 Gender Equity is the process of being fair to women
and men. Equity leads to equality.
 EFA Goals
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and
secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender
equality in education by 2015.
 MDG (Millennium Development Goal)
“Promote Gender Equality and empower women” and
to eliminate gender education preferably by 2005 and
in all levels of education no later than 2015.

3.  Male – centered language
Avoid the use of masculine nouns if not
specifically referring to men e.g. “mankind”,
“manpower”, “manmade” and pronoun such
as “he”. Previously male words served as all
inclusive terms for both males and females.

4.  Traditional male – female roles
Males are usually depicted as “masters” in their
homes. On the other hand females are depicted as
fixated on mainstreaming the household to a high
standard in order to make their husbands happy.
 Types of images used for females depicting them as
kind, loving, faithful, motherly, sisterly, compassionat
e, generous, loyal, educated and dependent.
 Types of images used for males: brave (most
common), popular, strong, kind (One of two
overlaps), achiever, innovative, adventurous, hardwor
king, generous, educated (the other overlap)

5.  A few examples of pictures and text used in
our textbooks focusing on young boys and
girls, men and women in their traditional
roles.
 Example 1

6.  Example 2

7. Example 3

8.  “Derogation of women” – Women are
portrayed as manipulate, jealous creatures,
weak, superstitious or despicable.
 Females as silent suffers – textbooks usually
portrays females in a submissive role namely
natural silent suffers and this is highlighted as
inherently good female quality.

9. Some points to be kept in mind before and
while developing materials for textbooks in
order to reduce gender bias in textbooks.
 Use neutral nouns and don’t use masculine
nouns and pronouns for both female and
male genders. For example for man use
humans; for mankind use the human race; for
manpower use workforce; for manmade fibre
us synthetic fibre.

10.  Use inclusive pronouns: Use he or she , or rephrase the
sentence (rephrasing to the plural forces often works)
 Examples:
 He has need of ……………… (incorrect)
 Observers of …………. Will perceive that they have
……. (correct)
 Don’t refer to people with stereotypical pronouns e.g.
“ the doctor treated his patient”; “the secretary tidied
her desk”. Social classes and age group should also
not be stereotyped.
 Ethnic stereotyping should also be avoided.
 Use positive images for females as well as males.