Gender representation in electronic recruitment materials

Children benefit socially and academically when male role models are present during early development, but the proportion of men employed in early childhood education is at an all-time low. Changes in recruitment practices must occur to reflect the interests of all potential candidates better, which could lead to a balance of gender representation in education programs. The purpose of this quantitative, conceptual content analysis study was to determine if gender bias existed in the images and text of promotional webpages for elementary education undergraduate programs. General systems, social learning theory, and cultivation theory provided the foundational theories for this study. Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) schools were selected for this review to help reduce the potential effects of extraneous variables. To train the rater and to develop and test the interrater reliability of the codebook and coding forms developed for this study, a random sample of 10 CCCU schools was used. These forms were then used to track the gender and position of characters in images and the use of gender specific and gender-neutral terms in the text of 105 CCCU schools' webpages. Results demonstrated that there was gender bias (with .5 proportion considered neutral) in images. However, when analyzing data using the Binomial Probability Distribution formula, there was no statistically significant difference in the use of gender specific text. Recommendations for further research include comparing the gender balance in images and text used in webpages to the actual population of the programs represented. By identifying gender bias in promotional materials for preparation programs, improvements could be made leading to more effective recruitment practices and resulting in gender equality in education programs and the teaching profession.