An ongoing and uphill battle

According to the recent NPR article "See Priya Cook", gender bias is prevalent in textbooks worldwide. Women are generally portrayed in subservient or domestic roles, while men are depicted as figures of authority and action. This is particularly concerning in light of a 2009 study indicating that first graders who used textbooks that depicted men and women as equals "tended to think that most careers and activities were appropriate for both girls and boys", while students who read books with stereotypical gender roles tended to believe and accept those stereotypes.