Locating the Social Position of Pakistani Women in Text Books

Abstract

The curriculum is the most grounded device to transmit and transform the way of life, values, and convictions of the society to the students. At the point the children enter the school, the pictures of the male and female depicted in books, solidify their ideas about gender bias and such gender stereotypes shape the mental framework of the students and leave an everlasting effect on the social outlook of the students. Children develop a certain sense of perception and personality while reading such books. The text, words, and pictures in the books leave a permanent blueprint in their mind and they organize their behavior along the patriarchal line, represented in the books. In the textbooks, male-dominant ideology has been used to construct reality in such a way that serves the interest of men in a society. There is a latent and manifest nexus of power and language which favors the patriarchal values. Gender ideologies apparent in the books are also embedded in children's pictures, mass media, and even clothing. There are also more males characters and heroes than females characters and heroes in the textbooks of Urdu and English. All prominent leaders of the Pakistan movement are males and only one female leader, Fatimah Jinnah, has representation in the books but that too in her capacity as sister of the founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.