Paper short abstract:

The paper presents some outcomes of the bigger project on religion and gender, related to general education and how religion and gender are dealt with in non-confessional Estonian Civics and Citizenship Education, and in Lithuanian confessional textbooks of Religious Education and Secular Ethics.

Paper long abstract:

Several countries, including Baltic countries, have policies protecting gender equality. As education is one of the most influential tools for social change, general education could be expected to promote gender equality and one would expect to find promotion of gender equality in textbooks as well. This may be challenging when teaching religion, which has traditionally been male-dominated. My presentation will examine how study materials in general education in Estonia and Lithuania present an intersection of religion and gender.

In Estonia, where only a few schools offer religious education, textbooks and workbooks for civics and citizenship education were analysed. In Lithuania, textbooks for religious education and moral education were analysed. In both countries, abductive content analysis was applied, with predetermined categories but with some flexibility in relation to the analysed textbooks.

The details of the textbook analysis varied in their details, but in all of them male characters outnumber females, and texts and pictures about religious tradition are masculine. In addition, male characters are depicted as powerful, and capable of changing public life, spirituality, and religiosity. The females are typically relegated to the background or depicted as mothers or wives. These textbooks reflect the male-dominated nature of religion(s) and their history, as also identified by western feminism. In my presentation, I discuss also possible solutions for this problem.