Gender Representation in Saudi EFL Textbooks: A Study of the Family and Friends Series

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the gender representation in the English as a Foreign Language textbook, Family and Friends 6 KSA second edition, that is designed internationally and widely used in private Saudi elementary schools. To achieve the study goals, a mixed method was used, content analysis and a compiling quantitative data in which the corpus of the English textbook was analyzed; frequencies and percentages of gender appearances and activities were also calculated. The major findings of the study were as follows: First, women were underrepresented in terms of appearance. Second, males were dominant of the reading passages and dialogues topics. Third, there is an overall higher tendency for females to be referenced in sentences before males. forth, males were presented in a wider range and overall a higher level of employment and enjoyed a wider range of spare time and leisure activities than females. Fifth, however, the distribution of household responsibilities was equal between females and males and female activities were not restricted to passive indoor activities. Recommendations and suggestions for further studies are presented at the end of the results section of this paper.