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Heroes and Helpmeets

Visions of Gender in Italian Instructional Resources on Gametes, Reproductive Systems, and Human Evolution

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Abstract

Despite a decline in sexist language, traditional gender beliefs remain embedded in the scientific literature on reproductive biology and consequently continue to distort knowledge, encumber the learning process, and reinforce gender essentialism. This article analyzes the enduring force of gender stereotypes in Italian middle school science textbooks and a highly popular education film. It identifies a consistent set of stereotypes and assumptions running through textual and visual content regarding fertilization, reproductive anatomy, and human evolution. In addition, the article demonstrates congruence between these materials and students’ understandings of fertilization through words and drawings elicited by a worksheet. Findings are examined within the context of pervasive gender stereotypes in textbooks and journal articles on reproductive biology, science and technology textbooks in general, and schoolbooks across subjects. The study shows that assigning gender traits to sex cells, reproductive systems, and ancestral humans misrepresents human biology, endorses a heteronormative vision of femininity and masculinity, and objectifies girls and women. Removing gendered representations from science textbooks is both more challenging and more urgent compared to other textbooks, given that their association with natural truth shields science textbooks from critical scrutiny as well as challenges to conventional conceptual frameworks.

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Notes

  1. For simplicity and brevity, we use the terms, “egg/s” or “ovum/a,” and “sperm/s” or “spermatozoon/oa,” regardless of the cells’ state of development or maturation. Translated passages maintain the term “egg cell” if used in the original, for reasons discussed below.

  2. During our lectures at the Università di Bologna, Forlì campus, several classes of thirty or more students have told us that they all remembered seeing the episode.

  3. According to one of the texts, sperms manage to traverse a distance 4000 times their length within 30 min (Vacca et al., 2014, p. 170), assuming sperm length of 0.005 cm (including the tail, which is some 10 times longer than the cell body) and female reproductive tract length of 20 cm (for mammalian sperm size in measurements, see Gu et al., 2019).

  4. In reality, sex determination is far from straightforward. Average pelvic measurements between females and males encompass overlapping ranges of data points. Modification of the pelvic parts due to childbearing provides more clues but diminishes in older age, meaning that older females may be mistaken for males. In short, a sex difference in the width of the hips is not the most clear-cut feature of ancient skeletal remains. Moreover, other kinds of information are needed to draw conclusions about the lives of individuals in any society (Geller 2014).

  5. This same tendency contributes to upward comparison threat, whereby girls exposed to counter-stereotypes such as female surgeon and male nurse may respond in the same way as they do to gender stereotypes, with reduced leadership self-concept and interest in male-associated professions (Rudman & Phelan, 2010).

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  1. Department of Interpretation and Translation, University of Bologna (Forlì Campus), Bologna, Italy

    Elizabeth D. Whitaker & Raffaella Baccolini

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Whitaker, E.D., Baccolini, R. Heroes and Helpmeets. Sci & Educ 33, 271–296 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-022-00378-4

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