Gender stereotyping in civic education textbooks in Turkey throughout the republican history

Abstract

This paper examines gender stereotyping in civic education textbooks in Turkey from foundation of the Turkish Republic (1923) up to the present. In order to determine how accurately the civic education textbooks reflect the status of women and men in Turkey a content analysis was conducted on civic education textbooks in Turkey throughout the Republican period. Despite the recent developments that indicate an increasing level of sensitivity to gender issues the findings suggest that the ideal of a truly balanced treatment of women and men has yet to be achieved and traditional ‘masculine’ understandings of citizenship appear to permeate civic education textbooks’ in Turkey. The discussion shows there is an urgent need to employ gender and difference as categories of analysis in the creation of a more inclusive understanding of citizenship in Turkey.