Almost four decades have passed since the feminist movement
first began to influence the composition of ESL/EFL textbooks.
Analysis of textbooks at that time exposed them as underrepresenting
and even demeaning women (Hartman & Judd, 1978).
Publishers were initially slow to take corrective measures (Porreca,
1984). A recent decline in the number of 'content and linguistic
analyses of gender in language textbooks' (Sunderland, 2000:152)
however, suggests that this situation has improved.