The Brave or The Wasteful Woman? : A Textbook Analysis of Female Actors from 1876 to 2018

This is a study about six textbooks that are used in the history subject in the Sweden upper secondary school since the year of 1876 to 2018 with a year-gap of approximately 30 years. The study aims to understand how many and to what proportion women are named in the textbooks. The aim is also to understand what qualities the mentioned women are given and whether these qualities are positive or negative. The results of this study show that the mentioned women are significantly fewer than then male, throughout all the textbooks. Even though there are slightly more mentioned in the last one, from 2018. Another result is that three of the textbooks are using more positive qualities for women, than the other three. However, most of the mentioned women are only stated as a mother, a sister, a daughter, or someone’s spouse. Something that can be linked to women being seen as objects rather than as people. One conclusion in this study is that not enough women are mentioned in the textbooks. Therefore, the teachers must find material themselves to be able to get an equal education for their students.