Representation of Female Scientists in Social Studies Textbooks

Scientists are people who have the characteristics that can set an example for many people with their studies and lives. Textbooks, which have been used for many years and are one of the most important tools of the education system, contain many role models of scientists. For this reason, textbooks are an important factor in determining students’ role models. This study aims to reveal the representation level of female scientists in social studies textbooks. In the research prepared based on the qualitative method, the data were collected with the document analysis technique. In this research, primary and secondary school social studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of National Education in the 2018–2019 academic year and distributed to be taught in schools were used. The textbooks used in the research were obtained from the official website where the books were published online between October 10, 2018, and February 10, 2019, and the necessary data for the study were collected by analyzing them. The collected data were analyzed by
content analysis. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that the majority of the names of scientists in the textbooks are male, and the names of female scientists are few and used without giving details. In line with these results, some female scientists whose names can be included in social studies textbooks have been suggested.