Examination of textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) reveals a hidden agenda in many: globalization of a Western-styled consumer culture. Despite attempts to make textbooks more culturally inclusive, they still reflect ethnocentrism and conformity. Both sexism and heterocentrism are overt. Concurrently, among native English speakers, postmodern, feminist, and multiculturalist theories are joining to revise how we view and speak about the world: for example, generic masculine pronouns (he, his) are now commonly viewed as masculine, not neutral. It is important to eliminate sexism in the language class. A classroom experiment illustrates how gender differences affect the learning process. Students were divided into small single-gender groups to summarize an article they had read. The female groups quickly organized themselves for discussion and stayed on task, while most male groups functioned only minimally on task. Research also shows other gender differences in classroom interaction. To change sexist patterns of classroom interaction, language teachers can: ask more open-ended questions to females; allow more time for response; use exercises that develop active listening skills, productive/non-confrontational communication skills, and facilitative questioning; and promote student awareness of sexism in textbooks. Eighteen classroom activities are appended. Contains 20 references. (MSE)