Unworthy of History? On the Absence and Stereotypical Images of Women Scientists in Light of the Historical Narrative in Middle and Secondary School Textbooks

Abstract

Our research project “Unworthy of History” focuses on discussing the historical narrative in Polishhistory textbooks that are used in teaching history at the middle school level. The aim is to analyze and describe ways of thinking about as well as presenting the role and place of women and men in history in schools. Research shows that women are portrayed in textbooks as playing a less important role than men – they are almost non-existent in public life. “(...) what is male is universal. What is female is accidental and secondary”. The few women that are mentioned in these textbooks are portrayed in traditional roles, usually family roles, and in those contexts and spheres of life that are culturally considered to be typically feminine. Women are not only under-represented in history textbooks; also, informationabout them is often distorted or simply untrue. The topic of the (in)equality between women and men as well as the history of women’s emancipation movements, which are related to the empowerment of half of humanity, is not considered worthy to be presented in Polish textbooks. Our presentation and study focused on the absence and stereotypical representations of women scientists in Polish history textbooks. The results reveal that although women could be as creative and hard working as men – not exclusively in the fields traditionally associated with women (e.g. Josephine Cochran invented the dishwasher in 1872, and Marion Donovan – disposable diapers in 1950) butalso in those associated with men (e.g. Mary Anderson created windshield wipers in 1903 and Grace Murray found the first computer bug in 1947) – their contribution to the development of societies is marginalised, trivialised or totally omitted by the authors Polish history textbooks. In every textbook analysed, men make up over 90% of characters introduced by name although they were not necessarily widely known. On the other hand, women who achieved professional success in science, art or social development get ignored.

Underrepresented and Excluded from the Public Sphere: Women of Solidarity in Polish History Textbooks

“…From this perspective, history textbooks also socialize gender roles . The growing evidence suggests that women remain consequently outside the history textbooks' narratives or they are portrayed in stereotypical female roles, usually inside homes, which belong to the private sphere (Szymczak, 2011;Chmura-Rutkowska, Głowacka-Sobiech & Skórzyńska, 2015;Michalski & Napierała, 2016;Williams & Bennett, 2016;Bagdasarova & Marchenko, 2017;Hildebrant-Wypych, 2017;Durrani et al ., 2022) .…”