Revisiting "The fertilization fairytale:" an analysis of gendered language used to describe fertilization in science textbooks from middle school to medical school

Cult Stud of Sci Educ (2014) 9:201220

DOI 10.1007/s11422-013-9494-7

Lisa Campo-Engelstein Nadia L. Johnson

Received: 16 August 2012 / Accepted: 12 March 2013 / Published online: 31 May 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract Emily Martins (Signs J Women Cult Soc 16(31):485501, 1991) article, The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical MaleFemale Roles, was published in Signs over 20 years ago. In this groundbreaking article, she discusses how gender roles are often projected onto reproductive biology, leading to the portrayal of eggs as passive and sperm as active. We were interested in seeing if many of her ndings are still relevant today. We analyzed science textbooks from the middle school to the medical school level to determine if fertilization in human reproduction is described in gender-biased language regarding the sentence structure, amount of information provided for female and male processes/parts, and neutrality in describing female and male processes/parts. Although there has been much improvement, there is still a long way to go. Sexist language in scientic textbooks is troubling because it negatively affects both female and male students and undermines teachers ability to teach in an accurate and gender-neutral way.

Keywords Reproductive biology Gendered language Science education

Medical education Gender roles

The opening credits in the 1989 movie Look Whos Talking portrays a common perception of fertilization and the way fertilization is still described in some scientic writing, including student textbooks. As the Beach Boys song I Get Around plays in the background, we see sperm inside a womens reproductive tract moving toward her egg. The scene is narrated by one of the sperm, though we can hear some of the other sperm talking. The narrating sperm tells the others, Ok, follow me I know where were going Ive got the map. Follow me kids, keep up. Upon seeing the egg, the sperm says I think I see something this is it, this

Lead Editor: S. Martin.

L. Campo-Engelstein N. L. Johnson (&)

Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected]

Revisiting The fertilization fairytale: an analysisof gendered language used to describe fertilizationin science textbooks from middle school to medical school

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202 L. Campo-Engelstein, N. L. Johnson

is denitely it jackpot! to which another sperm replies...