The purpose of this study is to explore the gender inequalities in elementary school social studies textbooks in China. The subjects of this study are the social studies textbooks for the 3rd and 5th graders of Chinese elementary school, the textbooks published by the People’s Education Press in Beijing and Shanghai Education Press. The research method used frequency analysis and contents analysis of textbooks. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, gender inequalities were generally seen in the textbooks of the Beijing version and the Shanghai version. Second, in relation to occupational activities, both the textbooks published by the People’s Education Press and
Shanghai Education Press showed similar trends of gender inequality. The Beijing version of social studies textbooks had a strong tendency to show gender inequality. Third, in the domestic activities, both the textbooks of the Beijing version and the textbooks of the Shanghai version showed gender inequality tendencies. Moreover, the gender differences in the participation rates of male characters and female characters were still larger in the Bejing version than the Shanghai version. Fourth, contents related to social activities were less common in both textbooks than occupational activities and household activities, and it was considered that gender inequality trends contained in contents were not presented clearly. There is a gender inequality phenomenon that can negatively affect the perception of students' gender roles in the contents of main social studies
textbooks in China. In order to improve gender inequality in textbooks, policy suggestions were also discussed.