Researchers have found that one promising way to improve students' attitudes toward reading and their overall reading competence is to provide students with reading materials that relate to their personal interests. By allowing students to encounter pieces of literature that feature characters with whom they can identify, they will see how reading can relate to their own lives and will more likely develop a love for reading. To ensure that both male and female students have access to reading materials in which they can connect to the characters, teachers should be aware of any gender imbalances found in the reading materials used in their classrooms.
This research study evaluated three recently published third grade basal readers for evidence of gender bias. The basal reader textbook series were selected for the study based on the following criteria: the series were offered to local districts in the State of Ohio for adoption, the series were published by major education publishers, and were current editions of each series. Once the basal reader textbook series were selected, the main passages in each third grade basal reader were analyzed for gender bias based on the following characteristics: percentage of each gender displayed in human illustrations; gender of main, minor, and mentioned characters; genre and content of each basal passage, and characteristics of the main characters. The data collected from each basal passage were entered into four separate data matrices (a matrix to analyze illustrations, gender of characters, genre and content of passages, and characteristics of main characters). Lastly, the data recorded on the data matrices were analyzed according to descriptive statistics and results of the study were shown in both visual and narrative form. Gender bias was evident within the passage illustrations, characters, and genre of passages found within all three third grade basal readers examined in the study.