Analysis of Linguistic Sexism in Sixteen Omani English Language School Textbooks

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine linguistic sexism in sixteen Omani English language school textbooks. The school textbooks belong to Grades 1, 4, 7 and 11. Content analysis was used to analyze the following two categories: masculine and feminine pronouns (he, his, him, she, her, and hers) and adjectives present in the sixteen Omani school textbooks. In general, the study results have revealed the presence of blatant linguistic sexism against females in terms of pronouns and adjectives. The results, including statistical analysis (e.g. Chi-square and likelihood ratio), have indicated that the sixteen Omani school textbooks revealed a biased representation of gender in terms of masculine and feminine pronouns and adjectives. The study findings showed that the total number of masculine pronouns is 894 compared to only 603 feminine pronouns. Moreover, the total number of masculine adjectives is 227 compared to only 131 feminine adjectives.

Keywords: linguistic sexism, gender bias, school textbooks, gender representation