2014/07/01 by Erin Cassese, Angela L. Bos, Monica C. Schneider · 33 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Content analysis #Diversity (politics) #Gender Politics and Representation #Gender studies #Government (linguistics) #Innovative Teaching Methodologies in Social Sciences #Law #Mirroring #Political Science Research and Education #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Social psychology #Social science #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1080/15512169.2014.921655
published in Journal of Political Science Education 10(3), 253-272 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2014/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
American government textbooks signal to students the kinds of topics that are important and, by omission, the kinds of topics that are not important to the discipline of political science. This article examines portrayals of women in introductory American politics textbooks through a quantitative content analysis of 22 widely used texts. We find that textbook coverage of women is scarce, tends to disregard important sources of diversity among women, reinforces traditional gender roles, and gives scant attention to women as political actors. Typical presentations of women thus reinforce women's status as political outsiders, mirroring their marginalization in American political life. We argue this content depresses interest in the academic study of political science and engagement with American political life more generally. However, we find that textbooks with one or more female author have significantly more gender-related content. Female political scientists better integrate gender into their textbooks and, thus, may be more likely to engage female students, who are underrepresented in the political science major.