By Mindy Kay Bricker Wednesday, June 15, 2005 A Czech initiative
to study schoolbooks for gender bias wrapped up late last year.
Activists see the government effort as a step in the right
direction. Seventh in a series on women and education. PRAGUE,
Czech Republic (WOMENSENEWS)--When Petr Havlik, head chair of
the Gender Studies Department at Charles University in Prague,
started looking at third-grade math schoolbooks he came up with
a text book case of discouraging role modeling for girls. One
set of math problems, for instance, was accompanied by eight
illustrations. In each picture a girl was shown either not
knowing the answer or giving the wrong answer. The boy, in every
case, corrected her. "The general expectation in the country is
that girls do not know math," he said. "People don't notice
because they take it to be the way it is." Last November, the
country's Education Ministry completed a $2,000 study of gender
treatments in text books for primary school students, who in the
Czech system are all t