Whose American Government? A Quantitative Analysis of Gender and Authorship in American Politics Texts

Abstract

American government textbooks signal to students the kinds of topics that are important and, by omission, the kinds of topics that are not important to the discipline of political science. This article examines portrayals of women in introductory American politics textbooks through a quantitative content analysis of 22 widely used texts. We find that textbook coverage of women is scarce, tends to disregard important sources of diversity among women, reinforces traditional gender roles, and gives scant attention to women as political actors. Typical presentations of women thus reinforce women's status as political outsiders, mirroring their marginalization in American political life. We argue this content depresses interest in the academic study of political science and engagement with American political life more generally. However, we find that textbooks with one or more female author have significantly more gender-related content. Female political scientists better integrate gender into their textbooks and, thus, may be more likely to engage female students, who are underrepresented in the political science major.