ARE HIGH-SCHOOL CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOKS GENDER FAIR

This study compared two generations of seven high school chemistry texts (1970/1973) and current editions analyzed for gender fairness in illustrations and in concrete analogies. Results support these conclusions: (a) considering the texts as a group, there are significant differences between relative frequencies of named and unnamed illustrations of men and women and no significant differences between relative frequencies of illustrations of boys and girls in seven high school chemistry texts in the 1970 editions compared to current edition of the same texts; (b) a current best‐seller is the only text that has achieved balance between male/female illustrations; (c) the other texts overwhelmingly favor pictures of males; (d) most current texts had more analogies than their 1970 editions; the former favored images reflecting girls' interests. Copyright © 1991 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company