Whose Story is it, Now? Re-examining Women’s Visibility in 21st Century Secondary World History Textbooks

In 2005 Clark, Ayton, Frechette, and Keller (2005) conducted a content analysis study on secondary world history textbooks to determine whether women’s inclusion had increased or decreased between 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s. They reported women’s severe marginalization in the texts even though the percentages of women’s inclusion had increased over the course of the decades. We conducted a replication study of the content analysis performed by Clark et al. from a feminist research lens and analyzed 2000 and 2010 editions of the same textbooks to determine if female inclusion had increased. Our findings revealed that very little to no progress has been made towards the equitable inclusion of women. We conclude by urging social studies educators to advocate for gender-based content reforms in state and national social studies exams as an avenue for obtaining gender-balanced textbooks.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1012/thumbnail.jp