Children ’s books still feature more male than female protagonists

By Emily Reynolds There are many fields in which women are underrepresented: in certain areas of education and academia, in politics, and in senior leadership roles. Efforts have been made across sectors to improve this representation, as we’ve particularly covered in the case of STEM. Unequal representation may start before the workplace or university, however — even before school. Exploring children’s literature, a new study in PLOS One from researchers at Princeton and Emory universities finds an overrepresentation of male protagonists in children’s books, potentially reinforcing damaging societal expectations for those of all genders. To analyse gender representation in this context, the team gathered data on 3,280 children’s books published between 1960 and 2020: these books included award winners, bestsellers, recommendations given to parents and teachers, and those featured in publishing catalogues. Books were aimed at children aged 0-16, and only those featuring a single identifiable protagonists were included in the set.  The books that were included were then coded for the gender of the protagonist, the year of publication, the gender of the author, the age of the target audience, the type of character (human or a non-human being like an animal, alien, toy, or vehicle) and the genre of the book (fiction or non-fiction). The team found that in the 1960s, almost three-quarters of books had male protagonists. This proportion decreased...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Gender Reading Source Type: blogs