How to Encourage Gender Equality in a Curriculum

Open any textbook, and chances are that students will find more poets, authors and essayists of one gender than the other. In today's world, gender equality is imperative for fair education, but a teacher must take the correct steps to reach this goal.

Things You'll Need

• Textbooks with male and female authors
• Novels with male and female authors
• Essays with male and female authors

Instructions

How to Encourage Gender Equality in a Curriculum

1. Review the books the Board of Education has approved, to see how the balance of men and women writers is represented.

2. If the titles don't have an even balance, search the web or bookstores for affordable novels, essays and textbooks that would incorporate more work from the under-represented gender.

3. Calculate pricing, shipping costs and delivery times for the number of titles required by the students in the current class.

4. Bring this information (including book summaries and reasons the additional educational material is needed) to the Board of Education or principal. See if they are willing to give the teacher the correct funds to pay for these books.

5. If the Board of Education or principal turns down the proposal, and the teacher is still passionate about obtaining these books for her students (but does not have the income to pay for them without reimbursement), contact a tax office to see if the book charges are tax deductible.

6. Go back to the Board of Education or principal and see if they are willing to let these books be released as educational material if the teacher pays for for them. If so, be sure to keep records of all receipts for tax season.

7. If the Board of Education or principal still won't approve the book-buying proposal, assign an outside-reading project to students, in which they are to look in the school library for works by authors, essayists and poets of different genders.

Tips & Warnings

• Half.com and Amazon.com sell books for a cheaper price than most retail bookstores.