Textbooks used in U.S. schools are teaching kids and teenagers an outdated view of sex and gender, according to research.
A new study published in the journal Science analyzed six of the most widely used high school biology textbooks in the United States, and found that most of them conflate sex and gender, which are considered two separate concepts by scientists.
Instead, these textbooks focus on a more "essentialist" view of sex and gender—the idea that sex and gender are interchangeable, and men and women are fundamentally different—which the researchers note may lead to discrimination towards women and gender non-conforming people.
"Our study suggests that the material that adolescents are exposed to in school textbooks might itself—even if unintentionally—be a source of essentialist ideas," paper co-author Brian Donovan, a senior research scientist at BSCS Science Learning, a nonprofit organization in Colorado Springs, said in a statement.
"It's not unusual for textbooks to discuss ideas that were considered accurate earlier in the history of science and are now known to be incomplete. But essentialism is not a scientific model—it's an overly simplistic lay view that is at odds with the scientific consensus on sex and gender," Donovan said. "It should have no place in the biology curriculum."
The six textbooks studied in the paper were published between 2009 and 2016, and comprise about two-thirds of the introductory high school biology classes across the U.S. They found that none of these textbooks differentiated between sex and gender as different concepts, which goes against the scientific literature-backed view that sex is a biological phenomenon and gender is a sociological construct.
Scientific study into sex and gender makes it clear that while sex and gender are often referred to interchangeably, they actually refer to different aspects of identity. Sex typically refers to the biological characteristics that define male and female bodies, such as reproductive organs, chromosomes, and hormones. While most people fit into either the male or female sex, there are some people who do not fit into the categories of male or female: Intersex individuals, for example, may have variations in sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female.
Gender, on the other hand, is a social and cultural construct that refers to the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men, women, and people of other gender identities. Gender identity is how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. It may or may not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender identity exists on a spectrum and can include identities such as male, female, non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid, among others.
Therefore, while sex typically refers to biological characteristics, gender refers to societal and cultural roles and identities. While they are often aligned (i.e., someone assigned female at birth typically identifies as a woman), they are not always the same, and individuals may identify with a gender that does not align with their biological sex.
"Overall, the ways in which textbooks described sex and gender are more consistent with essentialism than with the scientific consensus on these topics," paper co-author Catherine Riegle-Crumb, a professor in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, said in the statement.
Essentialism is a commonly held but scientifically inaccurate view that there is a genetic "essence" that makes women and men the way they are, and therefore men and women are assumed to be totally separate, non-overlapping groups in terms of anatomy, psychology and behavior. This view has been proven inaccurate.
Additionally, the textbooks suggest that variation within and between genders or sexes is due to genes inherited in the sex chromosomes, which is scientifically inaccurate, as environmental factors and other, non-sex chromosomes play a role.
The researchers fear that teaching kids and teenagers these essentialist assumptions may have several negative consequences for both gender-conforming people and gender-non-conforming people alike, ranging from gender stereotyping and misogyny to transphobia.
"The findings serve as a call to action—it is important that the high school biology curriculum is revised so that it reflects accurate scientific knowledge rather than misguided assumptions that may foster gender stereotyping and discrimination," paper co-author Andrei Cimpian, a professor in the Department in the Psychology at New York University, said in the statement.
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