I came across an interesting article in searching for some topics for this blog. The article, titled "Gender Bias Still Exists in Children's Literature," states that gender bias is still common in many children's books. A duo at Centre College surveyed over 200 childrens books and found that they were still very gender-biased and showed an under-representation of female characters.
The kicker? Most of the books were from 2001, except the seven-year Caldecott winners, which were still recent. We're not talking classic children's literature that ranges from fables to Winnie the Pooh to Where the Wild Things Are, but we're talking modern-day women-can-work-and-make-as-much-as-men, don't-write-he-because-it-could-be-she children's books.
So what all did this entail? Well, as a short summary, and directly from the website, "There were nearly twice as many male as female title and main characters... Male characters appeared in lillustrations 53 percent more than female characters... Female main characters nurtured more than did male main characters, and they were seen in more indoor than outdoor scenes... Occupations were gender stereotyped, and more women than men appeared to have no paid occupation."
Nature versus NURTURE, anyone?
The duo also did studies on books from the 80s and 90s, and found no reduced sexism in the books from the year 2001.
Two other intersting facts: First, in these 200 books, "more than twice as many had more male title characters than female (75 versus 32) and more male main characters than female (95 versus 52)." But, possibly more intersting is the The People = Male and Animal = Male phenomena, or that there exists in us a tendency to assume an animal or a person is male unless there's strong information to the contrary.
And what all does this mean? According to one of the researchers, "Modern children's picture books continue to provide nightly reinforcement of the idea that boys and men are more interesting and important than are girls and women."
It's interesting that, for the most part, I doubt these authors sat back and said "Hm, how can I make this as gender-biased as possible?" but we're still giving children the hidden implications of male-reigning society. Why? Because it's still subconsciously in our heads as well, perhaps. Either that or the authors really are sitting around trying to figure out how they can make it as gender-biased as possible.
See the article at http://www.collegenews.org/x6773.xml
Has anyone read--or been read--the children's book Mama, Do You Love Me? It features a little girl who fantasizes about getting into trouble, and the Mama still loves her despite. A few years later, the same author wrote Papa, Do You Love Me?, which features a little boy who spends hardly any time fantasizing about getting into trouble.
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