Gender representation in EFL textbooks used in Turkish State Schools

The study aims to investigate how both genders are represented in the visuals and language of the three primary and four secondary school English language textbooks used in Turkish state schools and published by the Turkish Ministry of National Education. The present study involves classifying and counting visual and linguistic elements in the textbooks as a form of content analysis. The content of each textbook was analyzed in terms of visuals and language. The visuals and language of a total of seven books, including textbooks for 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades, and 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, were analyzed to identify the representation of two genders in terms of visibility, occupation and gender, leisure activities for each gender, and roles assigned to each family member. The results have revealed that in both primary and secondary school textbooks, male representation is higher in all categories except the roles assigned to each family member category. However, compared to secondary school textbooks, it is observed that male dominance is much higher in primary school textbooks. It is evident that there is a great effort to ensure equal representation of both genders in the visual and linguistic elements of secondary school textbooks although fully equal gender representation has not been achieved.