This thesis uses the acquired sources and information to explain the formation of gender through various agents, with special focus placed on the influence of the school environment and teaching aids used to present children with objective knowledge and the image of the world. Over the centuries, people have developed, maintained and consolidated images of the binary genders (based on the “biological” sexes) that have changed according to the needs of a particular society in a given time and space. Despite the formal and legal attempts of eliminating gender inequality, today we are still marked by a binary view of the world in which there is only room for two biological-sex-based genders, whereas all other gender identities are systematically denied. As men have constructed and set the rules and norms of everyday life, this meant they could exercise supremacy over women (not to mention all other genders), pushing them into a subordinate position, restricting them and depriving them of their freedom. Men have maintained this supremacy to this very today, keeping it up under the pretext of the “natural state” of affairs and meritocratic principles. Various factors (family, peers, mass media, educational, political, religious, leisure and other institutions and organizations) with their structure and functioning have been (re)producing the gender order and maintaining the current position of the sexes (a binary sex-based gender system) in society, hence shaking off patterns of history is a slow and tedious effort. Gender stereotypes and discrimination are still strongly present in society, wherefore women (and other genders) are significantly deprivileged in comparison to men when it comes to ensuring equal opportunities and success. In order to establish and ensure gender equality, we need to involve both institutions and individuals and generally raise awareness, starting by teaching the youngest. The obtained information and findings were used in the analysis of textbooks for Spanish as a foreign language and it was ascertained that gender discrimination is often present in the textual part as well as on the visual level - certain images in the textbooks are presented in a heteronormative way, attributing traditional stereotypes (tasks) to stereotypically conceived female and male characters.
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