Gender parity through the Saudi Vision 2030: Female representation in English as a Foreign Language textbooks

Abstract

In 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced the inception of its 2030 Vision, pledging within it to realign the country’s school curriculums to focus on their contribution to economic, social and environmental sustainability. It also undertook to increase female workforce participation, so that by 2020 there would be about one million jobs held by Saudi women. In this context, this chapter discusses the advancement of gender parity in education and workplace participation through the Saudi Vision 2030 as well as the global agenda of the sustainable development goals (the SDGs) and argues the case for aspiration raising for Saudi women from an educational role modelling perspective. The chapter analyses the responses to questions on the representation of women in two different English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks and their expected roles in light of the 2030 Vision. It examines how third-grade high school girls perceive the content of their EFL textbooks and suggests modifications that support a change in the depiction of women’s roles in school textbooks to advance the Vision 2030 and Saudi Arabia’s commitment to gender parity.