Ashley McDowell

ENG 2560
Dr. Wilson
11 April 2016
Gender in Childrens Literature
Prior to the mid 1900s, gender roles were common in the way
that women would stay at home and care to the house, while men had
paying jobs outside doing a type of labor. Looking at society now,
gender roles have come a long way. Gender roles have changed
dramatically over time in many different aspects of life. There is much
less discrimination within the workplace. Women can work mens jobs
and vice versa. There is no set role for each gender to follow now and
old stereotypes do not exist as much. Since genders became more
equal as society modernized, so should have their interpretations
throughout different media.
Childrens books and movies are an important part of a persons
life. They are some of the first learning tools they encounter regarding
society, which is why accurate gender portrayal is important in these
media. Since character portrayal is a key to learning social norms in
childrens literature, it would make sense for genders to be portrayed
as equals in childrens books in the modern day. Since gender roles
have become less divided, the purpose of this research is to explore
how genders were portrayed in childrens books and media back then

versus how they are now. The objective is to see how these different
roles are portrayed to kids at an early age, so that stereotypes about
gender are stopped at a young age. Through research, gender roles in
childrens literature will be discussed.
The findings start with Tognoli and his research of gender roles in
childrens literature before the 1980s. Then it moves to his research of
childrens literature after the 1980s to discuss the change in gender
roles of characters. Taylor and McCabe then discuss how characters are
portrayed in modern day literature, and how children interpret these
gender roles from literature. From that research, a study will be
conducted using Disney Pixars movie Inside Out in order to look
further into how children see gender roles portrayed through
characters in different media. What types of changes have happened
in childrens books regarding gender roles? Is modern society shaping
the way men and women are portrayed in books now? This study will
look at how, and if, children see gender stereotypes within media to
conclude whether or not gender roles have changed in character
portrayal over time.
Gender roles were strict in the early 1900s and these roles can
be seen through the childrens books during that time. Research done
in books from the early 1900s shows the prominent division between
gender roles. In The Privilege of Place: Domestic and Work Locations of
Characters in Children's Books by Tognoli, he noticed that in many

early books from childrens literature most of the main characters were
male figures. These male figures were the centerpiece of the story.
Female figures were minor characters and often used as detail. At
times when women were portrayed to some extent, Tognoli saw that
these women stayed in the house. Their position was to tend to the
house and care for the family. Oppositely, males held paying jobs
outside of the home. These jobs usually revolved around some type of
labor. The gender portrayal described from this research correlates
directly with the roles of men and women in the early 1900s. These
books were accurately portraying society of that time.
When society started becoming more accepting towards gender
equality, childrens literature showed a slight increase in the equality of
their characters. After the 1980s there were still signs of gender
stereotypes present within society, but they were less prominent than
before. In his research, Tognoli noticed that there was less division
between the genders of characters. Women had lives outside of the
house. They held paying jobs, but they were observed as stereotypical
jobs, such as, a beautician. Male characters were also still more
common than female characters, especially for the main roles. There
were times where men were seen more in the home instead of always
being outside of the home. As there was a change of roles within
society, these changes were also mostly portrayed throughout

childrens books. From this it is clear that changes across this timeline
have occurred and have been changed throughout literature, as well.
Taylor, in his research Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes
in Children's Books, also noticed that men and women were starting to
be represented equally in this time period. Women characters were
starting to hold main character positions, and holding actual paying
jobs. From this research he also noted that children recognized these
gender roles, but also that it did not affect how they thought of either
gender. He claims that the character portrayal did not directly affect
how children see gender roles. He claims that how kids see gender
differences in real life is what they use to interpret the books. This
study shows a gap within research only because kids acquire this
knowledge through the books they read. That means that these gender
roles within books are feeding them more knowledge of this gap
between genders just by seeing how characters act or what they do in
a book. With this trend it is clear to see that gender portrayal in books
changes along with societys views on equality. With this trend it would
seem that modern day society, containing all of its diverse positions
held by both genders, would also feature these changes within
childrens books. This would also give children the background
knowledge in order to make assumptions about societys view about
gender equality.

In Gender In Twentieth-Century Childrens Books: Patterns of

Disparity in Titles and Central Characters, McCabe researched
thousands of modern-day books to see if things really have changed
along with the times. What she realized is that, yes, there were some
changes. There was a good amount of progress being put towards
accurate portrayal of characters, but it was not accurate to the modern
day times. Through all of the books she observed, male characters still
filled main character roles more than their female counterparts. The
gaps still existed even with how society sees gender now. She found
this concerning because it was not accurately portraying the diverse
opportunities for both males and females to children. Children read
these books and are conditioned to think that these gender
stereotypes are normal, but with this day and age, these stereotypes
are far less important.
Since childrens books and movies are some of the first learning
tools they receive in life, it is easy for them to pick up on the
information that they see within these books or movies. That is why
many stories contain a central purpose, teaching them a lesson about
the world. When kids see gender in media and how they are portrayed,
kids start to associate certain jobs, hobbies, and activities to that
certain gender. That is why accurately portraying gender equality
along with the times is important in books, so that kids can break these
stereotypes associated with each gender.

This research stems from findings from certain methods used by

these researchers. Tognolis method was an analysis of two hundred
randomly selected childrens books from a set of libraries. These books
were pulled from the corresponding time period (pre- or post-1980s).
He then used a randomization process to select one page from each
book to analyze the picture and its content. That is where he noticed
the portrayal of women and men in each book from before the 1980s
and after. This is the method he used to recognize the slight change in
gender portrayal in childrens books over the course of one hundred
years.
Taylor selected groups of students to conduct his research. The
children were broken up into small groups. They were allowed to select
their own book to analyze and discuss. Each group was given a list of
masculine and feminine traits, and they were asked to where, and if,
these gender stereotypes were present within their chosen book. They
were to analyze the book with fine detail, noting every color and trait
associated with one gender or another. This is how he concluded that
children do not see much into these gender ideologies because he
claims that books have changed enough where there were no longer
identities associated with a specific gender.
In McCabes research, she looked at central characters in 5,618
childrens books published throughout the twentieth century (McCabe
203). These books include award winners and different popular books

in order to gain an understanding of how gender roles are portrayed in

common books that children see and read all of the time. From this
research, she saw that there was very little change in gender roles in
characters throughout the twentieth century, which contradicts Taylors
findings.
In order to further these findings on how gender roles have
changed and how children see gender roles in media, around twenty
fifth grade students attended a day full of exercises surrounding the
Disney Pixar move Inside Out. Throughout the day, children discussed
a few key questions surrounding the emotions and characters in the
film. The point of this discussion is to strike conversation between the
kids to help to gain some insight on how children recognize character
portrayal. Some of the questions being asked include the following:
1.Which emotions were not characters in the film? How might
these emotions been represented? Colors? Shapes?
2. Pick one of the emotions to Step Inside. How will the other
characters in headquarters feel if that emotion changes Rileys
emotions to reflect his/her primary emotion?
3. Step inside Rileys parents. Did they notice her feelings
changing? What signs might Riley have wanted her parents to notice?
How might her parents have responded?

4. Step inside Riley. Did she feel like she could communicate her
feelings? Why or why not? How might she have been able to
communicate her feelings to others?
After discussing these questions, the children were then asked to
make a conflict resolution animation involving their characters.
To focus on the purpose of this research their comments from
Question One are analyzed to see how they decide roles for certain
characters on their own. For question one, the children answered many
different emotions. Some of the common ones include Kindness, Love,
and Pain. They described Kindness as an orange character shaped as a
cotton candy cloud. As they were describing the character of Kindness,
I noticed that they used adjectives to imply that Kindness would be a
girl. They described Kindness as a cute cotton candy cloud. They
even used she when describing Kindness and her personality. They
also gave Love the title of a girl and said that she would be a pink
heart. Using the color pink to describe a female character shows that
these children were already conditioned to think of these stereotypes
when creating their own character. The children described the
character of Pain as a muscular guy with a grey color. They distinctly
said that Pain would be a muscular guy. This shows that they associate
certain emotions to the traits of either guys or girls. They made
Kindness and Love girls, and they made Pain a guy character. This
shows that gender roles in character portrayal are still pretty divided

when children discuss literature. They still associate certain qualities

like strength to guys, and others like caring and kindness to girls. It
seems that certain media might be portraying this division. During
Question Two, the kids often discussed how Joy, Kindness and Love
would be alike, and how well they would get along. That seems like
they are dividing the certain emotions to certain genders, and using
the characters from the movie to portray these roles. This goes to
show just how influenced they can be by media to produce these
stereotypes which are not as real as they are today. In the modern day,
it is okay for women to be muscular, and it is acceptable for men to
have hearts. Yet, these kids see characters from Inside Out, and other
media, and base certain characteristics around those characters, and
also connect these thoughts to society. These findings mean that there
are still inequalities when it comes to character portrayal of male and
female characters because kids still use this media to associate
genders with their older stereotypes. This means that gender portrayal
in books are not as equal as they should be. They do not correlate to
societys thoughts of gender in the modern day.
Through research it is seen that gender roles have become
slightly more equal through the last century. Through Tognolis
research and Taylors research, it is clear that women went from being
barely portrayed in books to becoming almost equally portrayed in
books of the modern day. Men also took on different roles, including

caring for the family and house in media that is seen by children.
Through McCabes research, it is seen that gender stereotypes still
exist within these texts. Although some changes have occurred, it is
clear that there are still some stereotypical portrayals which happen in
media, because children still associate certain traits and activities with
certain genders. Children can recognize these gender stereotypes
within media, meaning that gender roles have slightly evolved in
childrens literature over time, but are not an accurate portrayal of
societys views on gender equality today.

Works Cited
McCabe, Janice et al. GENDER IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY CHILDREN'S
BOOKS: Patterns of Disparity in Titles and Central
Characters. Gender and Society 25.2 (2011): 197226. Web. 27
Feb. 2016

Taylor, Frank. Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes in Children's

Books. Teaching Sociology 31.3 (2003): 300311. Web. 28 Feb.
2016

Tognoli, Jerome, Jane Pullen, and Judith Lieber. The Privilege of Place:
Domestic and Work Locations of Characters in Children's
Books.Children's Environments 11.4 (1994): 272280. Web. 28
Feb. 2016