The present study is a critical discourse analysis of two series of ELT textbooks, namely, Prosepect3 and Vision1 as well as Interchange Intro and Interchange1 in terms of how male and female are represented in their text and picture with regard to the ideological patterns behind this representation. To achieve this aim, a number of factors, including: 1) the frequency of male and female characters; 2) the frequency of male and female genders in terms of photographical presentation; 3) the ratio of ownership by male and female genders; 4) the types of jobs and activities held by male and female genders; 5) semantic roles devoted to both genders; 6) the ratio of masculine generic construction, and7) the titles of both genders were described, interpreted and explained in the light of Fairclough’s (2001) three dimensional model. The frequency and percentage of the abovementioned factors were calculated and depicted through tables, charts, and graphs to have a better understanding and comparison of gender representation in both textbook series. The findings revealed that both series of textbooks suffer from gender bias in favor of male gender, but this unbalanced status in gender representation observed to different degrees. In reality, the Iranian ELT textbooks are more contaminated with this kind of bias while Interchange Intro and Interchange1 have made improvements in this regard. It was suggested that the gender inequality observed in the Iranian ELT textbooks rooted in Iranian culture while the author of Interchange Intro and Interchange1 tried to reflect the equality between male and female genders in the modern world.
