In this essay, seven textbooks in the subject of religion education at upper secondary school have been studied. The aim is to examine how these textbooks present women in hinduism and buddhism based on three categories; religious role, religious status and position in society and how the presentation based on the three categories has changed since 1998. As a theoretical starting point, Yvonne Hirdman's theory of gender systems and gender contracts is used, Edward Said's theory of orientalism is also used to some extent. 

The results have shown that the woman is mainly presented in relation to the man. In some textbooks, women are presented in separate chapters and this can be understood and explained through the gender system principles, dichotomy and hierarchy. The religious role of women in hinduism and buddhism is presented in a few textbooks and mostly in relation to the religious role of men. The religious status of women is mainly presented based on the goddesses of hinduism and based on nuns and female monks in buddhism. The position of the hindu woman in society is presented to a relatively large extent and as subordinate to the man. The position of the buddhist woman in society is presented in a few textbooks. What emerges is primarily the subordinate position of women towards men, but also how progressive women's movements work to enable women to exercise their faith in a deeper way. It emerges from the analysis that the man is the norm in the textbooks. In some of the textbooks there is also a certain orientalist representation of women.