Role of Language in Gender Identity Formation in Pakistani School Textbooks

Abstract

Research in language and linguistics focuses on language as a reflection of gendered culture. This article argues that language reflects as well as preserves, propagates, reinforces and perpetuates this culture. The article explores the significance of the role of language, that is, words and labels, in the formation and construction of gender identity in the social and cultural set-up. The study is based on an analysis of 42 textbooks in English, Urdu and Pakhtu, used for teaching students from grades 1 to 10 in state-owned and privately run Pakistani schools. The article contends that language serves as a means to preserve age-old gender inequalities that in turn are manipulated and exploited to preserve social structures marked by gender bias, disparity and gender segregation. The research further indicates that the language of textbooks advocates masculinity and male domination in the decision-making process, division of labour, domestic and public spheres of activity resulting in the subjugation of women. The textbooks are markedly male-oriented as revealed with regard to creation, characterisation and modelling. Further, the community follows the Pakhtun code of honour, that is, Pakhtunwali, which is reinforced in the language of these texts.