Images of Objective Knowledge Construction in Sexual Selection Chapters of Evolution Textbooks

How Do Students Critically Evaluate Outdated Language That Relates to Gender in Biology?

“…This confirms findings from others who found cisheteronormative assumptions dominate textbooks across fields and subjects within biology ( Snyder and Broadway, 2004 ; Bazzul and Sykes, 2011; Fuselier et al. , 2018 ; Junkala et al.…”

“…, 2024 ). College evolution textbooks have been shown to replicate human cultural biases in their presentation of female animals as comparatively smaller, weaker, and more responsible for parental care than male individuals ( Fuselier et al. , 2018 ).…”

Considering Gender-Biased Assumptions in Evolutionary Biology

“…make exceptions of) less common findings in a sex; it is variation to be acknowledged. The greater focus of sexual selection on males than on females can, for instance, be illustrated by a recent textbook study where a much higher number of images of male than female animals were used for illustrating sexual selection concepts (Fuselier et al 2018). However, publications on sexual selection in females are increasingly appearing in the literature, as well as in mathematical models on female ornamentations (Fitzpatrick and Servedio 2018; Hare and Simmons 2019; Schlupp 2018).…”