Recent reviews indicate that most instructional materials are still sexist. This paper includes definitions of sexist and sex-equitable which incorporate both language form and gender content. It presents generalizations synthesized from the experimental research regarding the effects of gender characteristics of instructional materials on students. They apply to students from preschool through college age: (1) Exposure to sex-equitable materials results in more flexible sex-role attitudes for both males and females. There is little generalization to areas not specifically covered in the materials. Amount of attitude change is directly related to amount of exposure. (2) Females prefer materials with female main characters; males prefer same-sex characters but also like materials containing traditional male content. Students do not reject sex-equitable materials. (3) The patterns for comprehension are not as clear, but sex-equitable materials do not decrease comprehension. (Author)