The Level of Gender Awareness and Authors’ Beliefs

4.2 Discussion

This section will discuss the interpretation of the results of the study. In order to achieve effective and precise discussion, this section will be divided into three parts, namely the level of gender awareness and authors‟ beliefs, stereotyping, and breaking the stereotyping.

4.2.1 The Level of Gender Awareness and Authors’ Beliefs

The results of the determined categories become a source to discern the level of gender awareness in the four books. However, it will be determined according to the title since each book under the same title is designed by the same authors. English for Real Communication ERC represents Book A and Book B. English Hooray EH represents Book C and D. Before going further into the discussion, Table 4.17 sums up the results in each category. Table 4.17: The Summary of the Results No. Category ERC EH 1. Numbers of Characters - Almost equal vague - Book A : FM - Book B : FM - Almost equal - Book D : Unit 4 is balanced 2. Firstness - Almost equal vague - Book A and B: fluctuated in each unit - Unit 10 in Book A: balanced - Almost equal vague - Book C: FM - Book D: FM 3. Occupations - FM - Stereotyping - FM - Stereotyping, but there‟s a few attempt to break the stereotyping 4. Noun - Stereotyping, but there‟s a few attempt to break the stereotyping - Trying to break the stereotyping, but there‟s a few case of stereotyping 5. Masculine Generic Construction - Book A: Policeman - There is no word included as masculine generic construction. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI No. Category ERC EH 6. Adjective - Book A : stereotyping - Book B : neutral - Book C : neutral - Book D : stereotyping 7. Activities - Almost equal - Stereotyping, but there‟s a few attempt to break the stereotyping - Almost equal - Trying to break the stereotyping 8. Place - Most of the times are stereotyping - Most of the times are stereotyping According to Table 4.17, ERC has low gender awareness in depicting female and male characters since most of the categories stereotype the role of both characters. Meanwhile, EH has already had awareness upon gender, however, some gender stereotyping still exists. The level of gender awareness in EH can be categorized medium. Some parts are still stereotyping and unbalanced and the other parts are trying to break the stereotyping. The results show that a textbook as a product of designing material Graves, 2000 still entails gender bias in some aspects as previous studies had already proved Porreca, 1984; Rifkin, 1998; Lee and Collins, 2008; Damayanti, 2014; Wu and Liu, 2015. It reveals that stereotyping towards female and male appears in education through textbook. It occurs to all textbooks, both western and eastern textbooks. However, after Porreca‟s 1984 study, which was conducted 32 years ago, it has been evidence that gender awareness can be raised or remains steady. As Galiea and Rasyid 2015 have investigated English textbook, Real English, written by Western author, Peter James, the textbook is fully aware of gender awareness upon equality. However, their investigations towards English textbooks written by Indonesian authors are not satisfying since there are many gender biases and stereotyping towards female and male characters. Damayanti 2014, who has investigated English textbooks written by Indonesia authors a year before Galiea and Rasyid 2015, also finds the same things. In this study, all investigated textbooks which are written by Indonesian authors almost show the same result as the previous studies. However, this study looks deeper upon the cases through the authors‟ beliefs towards gender awareness. As seen in EH, the level of gender awareness is medium. It reveals that EH has a huge attempt to break the stereotyping. There is also a little tendency for ERC to break the stereotyping. Those things are disclosed through interview with the authors. In short, this study believes that the level of gender awareness is fully influenced by the authors‟ perspectives and beliefs. It depends on the authors in articulating their beliefs upon a textbook and gender. Graves 2000 states that articulating beliefs become a base or foundation in designing a course in which developing materials is included. It indicates that textbook is a product of material design and it can detect the author‟s beliefs. In order to discern whether the authors‟ entail their beliefs or not, interview with the author of each textbook is conducted. The aim is to obtain the trustworthiness and also confirmation upon the results. Since the concern of this study is regarding gender awareness, the author‟s belief upon gender awareness becomes the main focus. Starting from ERC, the results show that there are more stereotyping towards female and male characters, as seen in the occupation, masculine generic construction, activities, and place categories will be meticulously explained in section 4.2.2.. However, there is a small part showing an attempt to break the gender stereotyping, as seen in the interview with Silvester Goridus Sukur Appendix 5, an author of English for Real Communication: “Yeah, but [sic] not in detail. At least, one simple thing is when I used in the actors‟ name; [sic] always balance between the names of girls and boys, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI not boys boys and girls girls. But, I did not intentionally make it in balance . ” SGS_13 “I think it‟s not difficult, but I do not think too much in gender.” SGS_17 The author of ERC admits that he attempted to put gender awareness as one of the components in designing his textbook. However, he did not think and focus on gender excessively. Regarding gender, he seems to focus on the use of female and male characters‟ names. When he mentioned the name of female and male characters in his textbooks, he tried to mention both names in a row. Therefore, the female and male names came together in a sentence or conversation. However, the author admits he did not try to make it balanced. Although author admits that he did not try to make a balance percentage upon female and male characters in certain category, there is a case showing a balanced number of female and male characters. A balanced percentage occurs in firstness category in Unit 10, Book A. The percentage of female and male characters exactly shows balanced, 50 for each character. Again, this kind of case is considered as an accident, as the author said as follows: “Sexism is like male and female. As I told you, I did not do it specifically and intentionally .” SGS_18 “I did not do that. I did not count specifically to make it balance. Yeah, i t‟s time consuming. And then, at the same time, publisher forced us to finish the textbooks b ecause it is connected with the demand.” SGS_20 The above statement evinces that the balanced percentage occurs unintentionally. However, the author has already known about putting gender awareness in designing textbook, as seen in the following statement. “Yeah, when you think this too much in designing your textbook. You need to count accurately. For example, this chapter uses ten names. In these ten names, how many female names are there in the part? Only four? Or Balanced, five? Or else, [sic] something like that. And it takes time.” SGS_19 He said about counting the male and female characters to make a balanced percentage in order to raise awareness upon gender. Yet, the author had a little concern on gender when he designed his textbooks. This notion was revealed in the analysis in which ERC had low gender awareness. Moreover, the author ‟s perspective influenced the author in designing his textbooks, as seen in the following statement. “Yeah, you‟re right. So, you go in detail. Maybe because I have traditional view when the books do not use in big cities. But, I think in big city is not like that. But, in a remote area, female has a long hair.” SGS_34 The author admits that he had a traditional perspective when he designed his textbooks. In this case, the traditional perspective refers to an ideology which treats female and male according to their gender role. Both female and male are treated differently in society. Therefore, one character is marginalized in economic, education, social, politics, and others. As the author admits that he still influenced by his traditional perspective, the design of his textbooks also reflected the perspective. “And in the occupations, I think all of these occupations are related to women. This stereotypes women.” RN_31 “Yeah.” SGS_31 “Because what people commonly do at daily lives, at least in our country, secretary is mostly for female. ” SGS_32 “Yeah. I think. Like this one, driver, farmer, sailor, and they are usually done by males. ” SGS_33 “But, I think in big city is not like that. But, in a remote area, female has a long hair. ” SGS_34 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Those statements reveal that the author has been tied to his traditional perspective while he was designing the textbooks. Because of this, he depicted female characters had long hair, less job, masculine generic construction, almost indoor activities and jobs. Most of the evidences reveal that ERC demonstrates low gender awareness since there is some stereotyping both for female and male characters. The stereotyping is related to the occupation, noun, activities, and place which are attached to both characters. According to the interview with the author, the stereotyping appears as the author has a traditional ideology upon gender. The author brings his belief as a reference to depict the male and female characters in his design. On the other hand, EH shows many attempts to break the stereotyping for both female and male characters. As seen in the results, the analysis demonstrates that EH has a medium level upon gender awareness. This attempt also appears in the interview as a way to achieve trustworthiness, as explained and depicted as follows. “There‟s something wrong with the relation of gender in our society. And gender is culture, is something that is throughout education and socialization. It‟s something that is very urgent to talk early in our education through textbook. Because gender awareness then something that should be taught through education. When it comes to material, we have to be careful we have to be sure that our material is not gender bias. ” JSM_16 The statement above reveals that the author is fully aware to include gender awareness in the design. She thought that gender as a part of culture which perpetuates through education and socialization. Because of that, she tried hard to avoid gender bias in the textbook‟s design. It strongly indicates that gender awareness is blended in the design. This notion is supported from the author‟s statement which is seen in the following. “Started in university then, I was interested in gender issue. I read book, I read journal. And then, I wanted to know about it, I tried what I could do as a teacher. And then, I am as author. And then, I read a journal, Jurnal Perempuan . I read that textbook can be a breeding ground for the ideology of patriarchy. And then, after reading that, I tried to find out then. I tried to read the textbook that I used. I tried to be aware of every picture that I used. What does the picture tell me? What does the illustration tell me? What does the name tell me? And then, because of that, when I tried to design my textbook then. I tried to put that kind of awareness. ” JSM_17 The statement above shows that the author has already known the importance of raising gender awareness in the textbook‟s design. As she is interested in gender issue, she believes that a textbook can be media to deliver and spread out particular ideology, especially patriarchy. As consequence, people would like to take it for granted. Therefore, she tries hard to put gender awareness to avoid gender bias as a device to stop stereotyping both fore female and male in society. However, it cannot be denied that some components in EH are still unequal. Most of the inequality shows that female characters had higher percentage upon certain categories. For example, in activities category Book C, Unit 4, female characters were portrayed more frequently, and thus the percentage were unequal, showing that female characters had higher percentage than male. As for this case, the author gave statement as follows. “Because from the literature that I read then, female is portrayed doing something indoor, doing some domestic thing. So, male are often portrayed doing outdoor activity. But then, perhaps, I was over doing it. Because we try to use the same characters for this one, using TPR. We use TPR for the same character so if for example, I chose female characters, it will be four then. ” JSM_28 “Well, I think it‟s okay. I mean that‟s to make up for the other characters in other textbooks. This is not revenge. At that time, I guess I tried to break the stereotype. I thought at that time, Okay, I wanted to break the stereotype. But, at the end, I did not realize that there is more female representation than male representation. Well, I think it was because it talked about hobbies then. ” JSM_29 The above statement reveals that the author considered everything that is put in the textbooks EH, notably gender awareness. The author thought that the most essential and substantial things regarding gender are related to the influence and impact. In the statement JSM_28, it shows that the author is fully aware upon the impact of employing indoor activities for female characters. It may cause that domestic things are female responsibilities. In order to change the perspective, the author attempted to break the stereotyping by depicting outdoor activities for female characters at most. When it comes into the calculation, the results did not show the equality, showing that female characters had higher percentage. It also occurred in the other unbalanced categories which show that female characters had higher percentage. As the author had already explained, this case is out of the expectation. The things which emerge at the end are not fully considered. It means that the unbalanced percentage or number does not become the focus. The most important thing is related to the content how female and male characters are associated with. In other words, the most considerable purpose is regarding the influence of the content of the design. Although the inequality still exists, the reason and case are still acceptable. The evidence explains that the author has already considered and included gender awareness in the design. However, it cannot be automatically presented that female and male characters are equal and free from stereotyping. There are many challenges that should be faced to avoid gender bias, as seen in the following statement. “Then, because we work in the team. That’s not something that comes easily. We began as a team 15 year ago. At that time, when I brought a kind of gender awareness in our design. It‟s a kind of foreign perspective for my fellow. As usual, they made a joke of it..... ” JSM_20 “Yeah. But, you know what? Sometimes, when it comes to the illustration then, so we have to adjust this one. So, for the example, when we ask for name, when we ask for colors, then... Say for example, number two, the name is female name, but the illustrator drew the male character. So, this one should lose and the picture wins. Because, it is easier to change the text than the pictures. ” JSM_45 “In a lot of cases, the text then should change. The picture wins, the illustration wins. In a lot of cases, the problem is we were not there. We were not consulted. We only knew the results. ” JSM_46 Statement of JSM_20 reveals that working in a team can be a challenge in designing a textbook which raises gender awareness. Since the other authors have different perspectives and beliefs upon gender, the degree on applying gender in the textbook‟s design will also different. However, when this problem is solved, the design will generate a good textbook which raises gender awareness. Statement of JSM_45 and JSM_46 indicate that the problem on raising gender awareness comes from the external factor of the author, in this case, illustrator. When the illustrator has different perspective upon gender, she or he may depict both female and male characters differently. Although illustrator did something wrong related to the character of the pictures, the wrong thing won no matter what occurred next. Regarding this, the author does not have any privilege to change the final decision since the publisher is also in rush to distribute the book, as seen in the following statement. “But then, most of the times, because they rush, because they are pursuing momentum then. Sometimes, the process is the manuscript, and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI then what we got is the copy of the final one. And then, we could not say anything about that one because of the time. So, what we could do is we try to be careful with the pictures. The way we order the pictures and the way we design the text for the pictu res.” JSM_24 Besides, EH also shows the same problem as ERC. The balanced number and percentage occurred in EH. However, the result shows that it happened because of an accident. The word accident emerges since the EH‟s authors did not intentionally doing it in balanced, as depicted in the following statements. “Yeah. I did not realize. Because at the end, I did not.... When I finished the unit then, I did not count how many characters represented in the unit. I only knew that I wanted to break the stereotype. I demystify that female characters are not always doing indoor activities.” JSM_31 “Not, prepare it well, but [sic] by accident maybe. It means that we [sic] aware but we did not really count how many female and male characters in that book.” JSM_35 In conclusion, the author‟s belief influences the product of material design. As it has already explained by Graves 2000, the course designer, in this case, the author, implements his or her beliefs in all components. Since the product of material design is a textbook, the beliefs are not intentionally in the textbooks.

4.2.2 The Stereotyping