Gender Discourse of ‘Equal Opportunity’ for Male and Female in Pakistani English Textbooks: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to investigate the representation of male and female within the gender discourse of ‘equal opportunity’ in Pakistani English textbooks. The present study has focused on if the gender discourse of ‘equal opportunity’ resisted or supported in Pakistani English textbooks at varied educational levels and in what ways such discourse manifests gender notions in Pakistani society. The paradigm of this research is descriptive and qualitative. The corpus of the study is collected from the English textbooks of 5th, 6th and 8th classes of the Punjab Textbook Board Lahore through purposive sampling. The theoretical framework of the research is based on Critical Discourse Analysis approach. Within the paradigm of CDA, Van Leeuwen’s (2008) “Social Actor Network” model has been applied to analyze the gender representation in the text and the visuals. The results have shown that the discourse of ‘equal opportunity’ has been resisted in these textbooks as females have not been given the equal and fair representation. The findings are a vital source for the policy makers and the textbooks designers to improve the mistreated areas in future and keep in accordance with the policy of Education for All in real sense. This research is limited to the school textbooks of three levels only so further research can be done on other textbooks in future.