Women Representation in Indonesian ELT Textbook: A Comparative Study of Junior and Senior High School ELT textbook

Abstract

The textbook has a crucial role in the classroom, especially in students’ behavior and attitudes. A textbook has to reflect balanced images and information about males and females. It also has to support broad choices and many roles for both sexes to avoid unjust or bias gender issues. This study aims to examine by analyzing female characters’ visibility by comparing the two junior high school textbooks (grade VII and IX) and two senior high school English textbooks   (grade X and XII). This research used social context parameters such as (1)  family, (2) occupations, (3) school participation and achievement,  and   (4) hobbies and (5) interests. The contextual parameters in this research are chosen because it shows how female characters were stereotypically portrayed in the textbooks used in this research. The finding shows some differences between female and male characters in the texts and illustrations in Junior High School and Senior High School ELT textbooks. It also found that in the context of parameters, there are some significant differences of female representation in the ELT textbooks for Junior High School and Senior High School.