An Imbalance In Children's Literature Analysis

An Imbalance in Children’s Literature Bedtime stories are music to kid’s ears. The image of being in bed and reading or hearing a story be read brings back warm and familiar feeling into mind. These stories often are the first exposure young children have to society and gender roles. The stories children hear growing up and read in classrooms have a large impact on their views of male and female’s behavior and roles in society. In viewing, Caldecott Medal-winning picture books over the past seventy-three years it was found that these highly distinguished books lacked diverse gender representation (Crisp & Hiller, 2011) A majority of literature children being read by kids and being assigned in classes display male and female character’s in …show more content…
You are what you see and in this case girls do not see themselves being represented in the books they read. A study was done regarding the motivations behind the reading choices children, and it showed that “feminine traits were more closely associated with motivation to read” and it went on to say that “masculine traits were significantly associated with likelihood of reading male oriented” books (McGeown, 2015, p. 42) In general it showed that girls are more motivated to read than boys and they choose to read books that cross gender boundaries. In contrast, it showed that boys only read books which feature male protagonists. Despite having a keen interests in learning girls still find it hard to identity with characters protagonists being presented. The female characters with these books behave in stereotypical ways and limit girls for participating in gender atypical behavior and play. When gender atypical storybooks, featuring female characters participating in typically male actives, were introduced to children it greatly impacted their behavior and play. After being exposed to gender atypical books children began playing with gender atypical toys and stopped playing with gender stereotypical toys (Abad& Pruden, 2013). For example, “girl participant hears a story about a girl playing with a dump truck and immediately increases play with trucks,” this shows that by providing girls …show more content…
Other than parents, school and teachers have the most impact on children. Unfortunately, teachers are often not aware and prepared to handle gender inequities that occur inside classrooms, this is often reflected in their behaviors and the materials they present (Carinci, 2009). The first step towards having balance in gender representation is for teachers to beware that gender inequalities exist. Often times teachers choose books as reading material with predominately male characters without realizing that books with female protagonists are not be presented. After the teachers are award of this they need to start adding books to the curriculum with both female and male characters. In the study researching children’s reading choices and motivations it was found that gender neutral books were least popular but research also suggested that gender neutral books should be used for group reading actives (McGeown, 2015). Gender-neutral books are good for large groups because it offer the opportunity for both boys and girls to identify with gender neutral character. The introduction of gender atypical books could also have a positive effect in classroom environment. When gender atypical books displayed characters in non-stereotypical careers, for example a woman explorer, both male and female students exposed to these stories assigned