Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:33:41.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Hidden Curriculum? Examining the Gender Content in Introductory-Level Political Science Textbooks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2013

Erin C. Cassese  and
Angela L. Bos
Erin C. Cassese
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
Angela L. Bos
Affiliation:
The College of Wooster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Gender mainstreaming is a curricular reform emphasizing the inclusion of gendered perspectives into required coursework for the political science major. The burden of mainstreaming gendered content (along with other diversity subjects) ultimately lies with the instructor, who must provide a rigorous, comprehensive, and intellectually challenging course. To the extent that instructors rely on textbooks to structure (and even streamline) course development, the textbook is an important entry point for exploring the prevalence of gender content in the political science curriculum. Given the symbolic status of textbooks as “repositories of official knowledge” for the discipline (Ferree and Hall 1996), the exploration of content on women in introductory-level American politics textbooks offers insight into the messages students commonly receive about the role of women in American political life.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 214 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aaerni, April Lasky, Bartlett, Robin L., Lewis, Margaret, and Marie, Kim. 1999. “Toward a Feminist Pedagogy in Economics.” Feminist Economics 5 (1): 29–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Marcus D., and Wallace, Sherri L.. 2010. “Teaching Introduction to American Government/Politics: What We Learn from the Visual Images in Textbooks.” Journal of Political Science Education 6 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
American Council on Education. 2010. Gender Equity in Higher Education: 2010—A Report by the American Council on Education. http://www.acenet.edu (accessed February 26, 2013).Google Scholar
American Political Science Association. 2001. “The Status of Women in Political Science: Female Participation in the Professoriate and the Study of Women and Politics in the Discipline.” PS: Political Science & Politics 34 (2): 319–26.Google Scholar
American Political Science Association. 2005. Women's Advancement in Political Science: A Report on the APSA Workshop on the Advancement of Women in Academic Political Science in the United States. Washington, DC: American Political Science Association.Google Scholar
American Political Science Association. 2011. APSA Survey of Department Chairs. Personal communication with Jennifer Segal Diascro.Google Scholar
Apple, Michael W. 1992. “The Text and Cultural Politics.” Educational Researcher 21 (7): 4–11.Google Scholar
Banks, Cherry A. McGee, and Banks, James A.. 1995. “Equity Pedagogy: An Essential Component of Multicultural Education.” Theory into Practice 34 (3): 152–58.Google Scholar
Cassese, Erin C., Bos, Angela L., and Duncan, Lauren. 2012. “Integrating Gender in the Political Science Core Curriculum.” PS: Political Science & Politics 45 (2): 238–43.Google Scholar
Cassese, Erin C., Bos, Angela L., and Schneider, Monica C.. N.d. “Whose American Government? A Quantitative Analysis of Gender and Authorship in American Politics Texts.” The Journal of Political Science Education. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Charles, Marie, and Bradley, Karen. 2009. “Indulging our Gendered Selves? Sex Segregation by Field in 44 Countries.” American Journal of Sociology 114 (4): 924–76.Google Scholar
Clawson, Rosalee A. 2004. “Poor People, Black Faces: The Portrayal of Poverty in Economics Textbooks.” Journal of Black Studies 32 (3): 352–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clawson, Rosalee A., and Kegler, Elizabeth R.. 2000. “The ‘Race Coding’ of Poverty in American Government College Textbooks.” The Howard Journal of Communications 11 (3): 179–88.Google Scholar
Feiner, Susan, and Morgan, Barbara. 1990. “Women and Minorities in Introductory Economics Textbooks: 1974–1984.” Women's Studies Quarterly 18 (3–4): 46–67.Google Scholar
Ferree, Myra Marx, and Hall, Elaine J.. 1996. “Rethinking Stratification from a Feminist Perspective: Gender, Race, and Class in Mainstream Textbooks.” American Sociological Review 61 (6): 929–50.Google Scholar
Ford, Lynne E. 2010. Women and Politics: The Pursuit of Equality. 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Foster, Stuart J. 1999. “The Struggle for American Identity: Treatment of Ethnic Groups in United States History Textbooks.” History of Education 28 (3): 251–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Philip W. 1968. Life in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Novkov, Julie, and Gosset, Charles. 2007. “Survey of Textbooks for Teaching Introduction to U.S. Politics: (How) Do They See Us?” PS: Political Science & Politics 40 (2): 393–98.Google Scholar
Olivo, Christiane. 2012. “Bringing Women In: Gender and American Government and Politics Textbooks.” Journal of Political Science Education 8 (2): 131–46.Google Scholar
Prestage, Jewel Limar. 1994. “The Case of African American Women and Politics.” PS: Political Science & Politics 27 (4): 720–21.Google Scholar
Riegle-Crumb, Catherine, King, Barbara, Grodsky, Eric, and Muller, Chandra. 2012. “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same? Prior Achievement Fails to Explain Gender Inequality in Entry Into STEM College Majors Over Time.” American Educational Research Journal 49 (2): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, Pamela. 1996. “Ghettoized and Marginalized: The Coverage of Racial and Ethnic Groups in Introductory Sociology Texts.” Teaching Sociology 24 (4): 356–63.Google Scholar
Wahlke, John C. 1991. “Liberal Learning and the Political Science Major: A Report to the Profession.” PS: Political Science & Politics 24 (1): 48–60.Google Scholar
Wallace, Sherri L., and Allen, Marcus D.. 2008. “Survey of African American Portrayal in Introductory Textbooks in American Government/Politics: A Report of the APSA Standing Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession.” PS: Political Science & Politics 41 (1): 153–60.Google Scholar