Tracking down sexism in physics textbooks

It is now six years since the Sex Discrimination Act became law.Since1975 it has been unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sex in employment, training, education, the provision of goods, facilities and services, and in the disposal and management of premises.The Act is a wide and powerful one and set up at the same time the Equal Opportunities Commission charged with the specific concern of promoting equality of opportunity between the sexes and keeping under review the workings of the Act.A growing number of writers (Kelly 1979, Taylor 1979, Walford 1980) have pointed out that the image projected by some physics textbooks is clearly biased towards boys.They have shown that in many textbooks male characters appear far more frequently, both in text and illustration, and appear in roles which are more directly related to physics and its applications.The figures of males and females portrayed in these texts generally reflect narrow, stereotyped views of men and women in society.Males are shown involved in a much wider range of activities, recreational as well as vocational.Typically, boys are shown playing marbles, making music, digging up worms, riding skateboards, bouncing balls, swimming, jumping or drinking.On the other hand, when girls are shown they tend to be more 'posed' or to be engaged in more passive or limited pursuits.They are shown reading, figure skating, modelling, cooking food, sunbathing or generally involved in watching rather than doing.The problems to be answered by pupils are also more frequently about men and boys and relate problems in physics to typically masculine pursuits such as football or boxing.Women are often invisible in the text: the pronouns 'her' or 'she' hardly ever occur.