Gender Bias in Children’s Books

We knew intuitively that this was true but here’s some data from a new comprehesive study.

Gender Bias Uncovered in Children’s Books With Male Characters, Including Male Animals, Leading the Fictional Pack
Science Daily

“The most comprehensive study of 20th century children’s books ever undertaken in the United States has found a bias towards tales that feature men and boys as lead characters. Surprisingly, researchers found that even when the characters are animals, they tend to be male.

The findings, published in the April issue of Gender & Society, are based on a study of nearly 6,000 books published from 1900 to 2000. While previous studies have looked at the representation of male and female characters in children’s books, they were often limited in scope. “We looked at a full century of books,” says lead author Prof. Janice McCabe, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. “One thing that surprised us is that females’ representations did not consistently improve from 1900 to 2000; in the mid part of the century it was actually more unequal. Books became more male-dominated.”

The study also found that:
• Males are central characters in 57 percent of children’s books published per year, while only 31 percent have female central characters.
• No more than 33 percent of children’s books published in any given year contain central characters that are adult women or female animals, but adult men and male animals appear in up to 100 percent of books.
• Male animals are central characters in more than 23 percent of books per year, while female animals are in only 7.5 percent.
• On average, 36.5 percent of books in each year studied include a male in the title, compared to 17.5 percent that include a female.
• Although books published in the 1990s came close to parity for human characters (with a ratio of 0.9:1 for child characters; 1.2:1 for adult characters), a significant disparity of nearly 2 to 1 remains for male animal characters versus female.”

Source:

Gender in Twentieth-Century Children’s Books
Patterns of Disparity in Titles and Central Characters

Janice McCabe
Florida State University

Emily Fairchild
New College of Florida

Liz Grauerholz
University of Central Florida

Bernice A. Pescosolido
Indiana University

Daniel Tope
Florida State University

Abstract

“Gender representations reproduce and legitimate gender systems. To examine this aspect of the gendered social order, we analyze the representation of males and females in the titles and central characters of 5,618 children’s books published throughout the twentieth century in the United States. Compared to females, males are represented nearly twice as often in titles and 1.6 times as often as central characters. By no measure in any book series (i.e., Caldecott award winners, Little Golden Books, and books listed in the Children’s Catalog) are females represented more frequently than males. We argue that these disparities are evidence of symbolic annihilation and have implications for children’s understandings of gender. Nevertheless, important differences in the extent of the disparity are evident by type of character (i.e., child or adult, human or animal), book series, and time period. Specifically, representations of child central characters are the most equitable and animals the most inequitable; Little Golden Books contain the most unequal representations; and the 1930s-1960s—the period between waves of feminist activism—exhibits greater disparities than earlier and later periods. Examining multiple types of books across a long time period shows that change toward gender equality is uneven, nonlinear, and tied to patterns of feminist activism and backlash throughout the century.”

And, on a related theme:

Male Dominance in Kids’ Pop Culture—Th​e Numbers Are Not Improving

“As Pollack notes, the notion that males are natural leaders or authority figures places stress on boys and men, making them feel that they need to perform at their highest level at all times. It also teaches boys to maintain a façade of control, even when things are not going as planned, while never giving into feelings of doubt or betraying the slightest hint of weakness [i]…Including more female characters in boys’ entertainment would counter the negative impact of male dominance, while also teaching boys to see men and women as equals.”

[i] Pollack, William. Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood. (New York: Random House, 1998), 24.

More information for choosing books for storytelling and book clubs and reading events…

Stephen