Sex Roles, Vol. 28, Nos.

3/4, 1993

Gender Role Stereotyping in Children's

Literature: An Update I
C a r o l e M. K o r t e n h a u s 2 and J a c k D e m a r e s t 3
Monmouth College

The impact of gender role stereotyping in children's literature has been

examined in numerous studies over the past two decades. The purpose of this
study was to determine whether the sex bias portrayed in picture books is still
as prevalent as in the past. In particular, we were interested in whether the
frequency of males and females in pictures and their characterizations had
changed. One hundred and fifty children's picture books were analyzed for
gender lvle content. It was found that while the frequency of males and females
depicted in the stories had indeed become more evenly distributed over the
past 50 years, the roles played by males and females have changed in a more
subtle way. Girls are now being pictured in more instrumental activities, but
are as passive dependent as 50 years ago. Boys are occasionally shown as
passive dependent today, but are no less instrumental than 50 years ago. The
findings suggest that increased effort is needed on the part of publishers and
authors to provide children with literature that more closely parallels the roles
of males and females in contemporary society.

Children in every culture learn to adopt certain roles and behaviors as part
of the socialization process. Many of these behavioral roles are based on
identification with a particular sex. The development of gender role identity
is important to children's self-perception, and it influences the way children
are treated by adults and peers, affecting the expectations that others have

1Preparation of this article was supported in part by a Faculty Grant from Monmouth College
awarded to the second author.
2present address: TASS-AVRADA, Research and Development Activity, Fort Monmouth, NJ
07703-5401.
3To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Department of Psychology, Monmouth
College, West Long Branch, NJ 07764.

219
0360~025/93/0200q3219507.00/0 © 1993 PlenumPublishingCorporation
220 Kortenhaus and Demarest

for their behavior. The gender identity of most children is shaped by the
universally shared beliefs about gender roles that are held by their society.
These shared beliefs often take the form of oversimplified gender role
stereotypes.
Every society contains sources of information designed to foster these
traditions. In most cultures the most important and effective way of trans-
mitting values and attitudes is through story telling, and in literate cultures
this process includes children's books. A common experience for many pre-
school children is listening to stories read from books, particularly illus-
trated books (Davis, 1984). Preschoolers have story schema and they delight
in having a favorite book read over and over again. Koeller (1988) sug-
gested that young children are aided in practicing rational thinking as they
mobilize, formulate, test, revise, and expand their view of the world through
listening and discussing stories in books. In fact, books continue to have a
major influence on the socialization process despite the dominant role of
television in the day to day activities of most American children. Conver-
sations with adolescent students showed that individuals whose parents had
read to them during preschool years could still name the title of their fa-
vorite children's book, had accurate memory of the story content, and ex-
pressed enjoyment in remembering it (Miles, 1980). Their recall of
television programs did not seem to produce such a lasting impression. In
fact, most children are better able to recall commercial messages than pro-
gram content, possibly because TV viewing does not ask for the investment
of self demanded by literature (Goldsen, 1977). Given this long-term in-
fluence of books, there can be no doubt that the characters portrayed in
children's literature mold a child's conception of socially accepted roles and
values, and indicate how males and females are supposed to act.
In our society the characteristics of competence, instrumentation, and
achievement motivation are usually considered to be highly desirable traits,
and they are typically associated with masculinity (Deaux, 1976). Females
are perceived to be nurturant, dependent, and submissive, i.e., females ex-
hibit traits that are viewed as less desirable (Dino, Barnett, & Howard,
1984; Spence & Helmreich, 1980). These stereotypes already exist in the
portrayal of males and females in children's literature (Child, Potter, &
Levine, 1946; Hillman, 1974; Jacklin & Mischel, 1973; Key, 1971; Kingston
& Lovelace, 1977-1978; Purcell & Stewart, 1990; Tetenbaum & Pearson,
1989; Women on Words and Images, 1975), and they exist in the illustrated
picture books we read to our preschoolers (Collins, Ingoldsby, & Dellman,
1984; Nilsen, 1971; Peterson & Lach, 1990; St. Peter, 1979; Stewig & Higgs,
1973; Weitzman, Eifler, Hokada, & Ross, 1972). In children's literature,
males typically are portrayed as competent and achievement oriented, while
the image of females is that they are limited in what they do, and less
Children's Literature 221

competent in their ability to accomplish things. Female characters are in-

volved in few of the activities and assigned few of the characteristics or
goals that are accorded prestige and esteem in our society (Frasher &
Walker, 1972), even though such goals and activities are pursued and
achieved daily by a majority of women in the business and professional
world. McArthur and Eisen (1976) noted that girls must identify with the
male figures in these stories if they are to acquire any sense of competence
or achievement from the literary role models.
Key (1971), reviewing this literature through the 1960s, showed that
males predominated in situations with active mastery themes (cleverness,
adventure, and earning money), while females predominated in situations
with "second-sex" themes (passivity, victimization, and goal constriction).
There were also numerous examples of function ranking, such as the male
portrayed as older, taller, in front of, or leaning over a seated female.
Weitzman, et al. (1972), reviewing children's books published during
the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, found that females were greatly underrepre-
sented in titles, central roles, and the illustrations in picture books. Most
of the activity was done by males, and males were the focus of the story
in the overwhelming majority of the cases. Surprisingly, the stories that
were examined were taken from books that had won the Caldecott Medal.
This annual prize is awarded by the Children's Service Committee of the
American Library Association as a measure of excellence for the most dis-
tinguished picture book of the year. Key (1971) concluded that the trend
in children's books is based on the premise that, "boys do, girls are." In
picture books, these genderisms are very likely a strong influence affecting
children's perceptions of how males and females think, behave, and inter-
act.
Recently, however, an assessment of Caldecott books from the 1970s
(Collins et al., 1984) found that the books exhibited greater balance and
sexual equality, with more females present in titles, central roles, and il-
lustrations. It was suggested that the increased female representation was
a possible reflection of women's changing roles in the 1980s. Other studies
of current children's books do not share this conclusion, and indicate that
most books are still sexist (Barnett, 1986; Kolbe & Lavole, 1981; Peterson
& Lach, 1990; Schau & Scott, 1984), although a body of nonsexist children's
literature has been identified (e.g., Davis, 1984; Feminist Book Mart, 1975;
Feminists on Children's Media, 1974; Smith, Greenlaw, & Scott, 1987;
Women's Action Alliance, 1973). Since Caldecott books are considered the
best offerings in children's literature, one reason for this discrepancy might
be that the award-winning books in the 1970s were selected, in part, for
their nonsexist views, and as such they do not represent most other chil-
dren's literature. Davis (1984), for example, found no indication of behav-
222 Kortenhaus and Demarest

ioral sex typing in recent Caldecott winners for any category except aggres-
siveness.
If this hypothesis is correct, one would expect to find a higher inci-
dence of sexism in a random cross section of recent children's books than
that found in Caldecott books. Furthermore, if Collins et al. (1984) are
correct in assuming that the changing roles of women in our society have
influenced how females are depicted in children's literature, one would ex-
pect a dramatic change in sexism in all types of children's literature, but
especially Caldecott books, over the past 50 years.

METHOD

Materials

For the purpose of comparison with the earlier studies of Weitzman

et al. (1972) and Collins et al. (1984), 125 nonaward picture books and 25
Caldecott winners or runners-up published during the five decades between
the 1940s and 1980s were used in this study. All books analyzed were ob-
tained from public libraries in Freehold, Shrewsbury, and Wall, New Jersey,
from a public library in Boston, Massachusetts, and from the education
curriculum division of the Monmouth College Library in West Long
Branch, New Jersey. Nonaward-winning books were randomly selected by
counting off every 25th book on the shelves of the children's department
of each library until 25 books had been obtained for each of the five dec-
ades. Selection of Caldecott winners was based on availability. Five award
books were used for each decade.

Procedure

All books were analyzed in terms of depicted gender roles, and a

content analysis was done on the types of activities represented by the male
and female characters. It was noted whether these gender roles were clearly
delineated or whether illustrations were ambiguous. For the frequency
analysis, the procedure used by Collins et al. (1984) was replicated with
the books tabulated according to eight characteristics: (1) Females in titles,
(2) Males in titles, (3) Females in central roles, (4) Males in central roles,
(5) Females in pictures, (6) Males in pictures, (7) Female animals, and (8)
Male animals. In addition, the frequency count of females in pictures was
combined with female animals pictured in each book to yield a total for
females, and the same tabulation was done for male story characters. The
Children's Literature 223

number of males and females in all categories was broken down by decade
of publication before being combined for a total frequency count.
A content analysis was also done on the major activities of the central
characters in each book. In each case the analysis focused on the roles
portrayed by children since adults were invariably secondary characters in
these stories. Although a variety of settings were depicted, certain activities
occurred repeatedly in the stories. Using only those activities that were
clearly delineated, the 18 that were most prevalent were categorized as
either instrumental independent (i.e., actions that involved a lot of self-in-
itiated movement, decision making, and/or creativity) or passive dependent
(i.e., actions that required little movement and/or more help from others).
Nine activities were classified as instrumental independent and nine were
classified as passive dependent. A frequency count was then clone by decade
to determine the number of central role males and central role females
portrayed in these eighteen activities.
Reliability of the number of males and the number of females de-
picted in titles, central roles, pictures, and animals was determined by com-
paring the frequencies obtained by one of us on a sample of 25 books with
tabulated frequencies on the same books from the second individual. These
25 books were randomly selected from the total and covered with brown
paper so that the second coder was unaware of each book's Caldecott clas-
sification and year of publication. Percentage of agreement between the
two raters was based on total frequency counts in each category (i.e., total
agreements divided by the total agreements plus disagreements). The re-
sults revealed 100% agreement on the identification of males and females
in both titles and central roles, 98.5% agreement on males and females in
pictures, and 98.3% agreement on male and female animals. The total
agreements of the two raters across all categories were analyzed using a
correlation coefficient, revealing a highly significant agreement between the
ratings (r = 0.992).
Reliability of the types of activities that the male and female story
characters were involved in was assessed by counting the number of times
the raters agreed in identifying an activity exhibited by the central charac-
ter. The results revealed 65% agreement on the identification of specific
activities exhibited by the central character in each picture book, and 96%
agreement on the identification of the general category of activity (i.e., in-
strumental independent or passive dependent). The reason for the low re-
liability in the identification of specific activities is due to the large number
of things that the characters could do, and the fact that each of us listed
from one to four main activities per character. We identified 66 activities
exhibited by 27 main characters (2 of the books had both a boy and a girl
as the central character), and agreed on 43 of these activities. We rarely
224 Kortenhaus and Demarest

disagreed about the type of activity (instrumental vs. passive) that was ex-
hibited, except where the activity involved helping behaviors. This was not
unexpected since many previous studies (e.g., Barnett, 1986; Dino, Barnett,
& Howard, 1984) found it difficult to determine how to classify acts of
helpfulness. The study by Barnett (1986), for instance, showed that there
are subtle differences in the ways in which helping behaviors of boys and
girls are portrayed and interpreted, with the helping acts of girls receiving
significantly lower ratings of instrumentality.

RESULTS

The contents of the books were examined in terms of raw score tabu-
lations and a male to female ratio in five categories: (1) Titles, (2) Central
roles, (3) Pictures, (4) Animals, and (5) Animals and People. The chi-
square comparisons were based on a 2 x 2 matrix with type of book (Cal-
decott and nonaward) and sex of the storybook character as the two factors.
For each of the five categories a chi-square was computed (see columns
labeled Comparison in Table I). None of the calculated chi-square values
were found to be significant, indicating that the male to female ratios in
Caldecott and nonaward-winning books were fundamentally the same. Chi-
square tests were also calculated separately on the ratio of male to female
characters for each type of book to determine if males were overrepre-
sented in comparison to females (see fourth and eighth column in Table
I). We found significantly more male characters than female characters in
every category, with the exception of titles and central role figures of Cal-
decott winning books. Even in these two categories, however, males out-
numbered females 2:1.
For comparison, the content analysis ratios from the Weitzman et al.
(1972) and Collins et al. (1984) studies are provided in conjunction with
the ratios from the current study (see Table II). The data reveal a distinct
discrepancy in the findings of the Weitzman et al. (1972) study.
To examine the change in the male to female ratio in children's books
over the past five decades, the tabulated data for each book were grouped
by decade of publication. Only nonaward books were used for this analysis
to avoid the problem of sampling error (there were only five Caldecott
books available for each decade), and because the mean male to female
ratio for the Caldecott and nonaward books was fundamentally the same
(see Table II). The data for each of the four main categories (i.e., Titles,
Central Roles, Pictures, Animals) are shown in Fig. 1. Four two-factor re-
peated measures analyses of variance revealed significant sex differences
for all categories except titles, and either a significant decade effect or a
Children's Literature 225

Table I. Chi-Squared Analysis of Sex Bias in Caldecott and Nonaward Books a

Caldecott books Nonaward books Comparison

Category M F Z2 p M F Z2 P )Ca P
Titles 14 7 2.13 .1343 71 31 15.60 .0002 .21 .64
Central roles 25 13 3.78 .0558 131 71 17.82 .0001 .04 .85
Pictures 882 614 48.01 .0001 3822 2614 226.73 .0001 .26 .61
Animals 298 94 106.16 .0001 1415 473 470.00 .0001 .60 .44
Animals 1180 708 118.00 .0001 5237 3087 572.90 .0001 .78 .37
and people

aM: male; F: female; comparison g 2 values are based on Sex x Book Type matrices.

Table II. A Comparison of Male/Female Ratios in T h r e e Studies

K o r t e n h a u s and D e m a r e s t
W e l t z m a n et al. Collins et al.
(1972) (1984) (1993)
Caldecott Caldecott Caldecott Nonaward
Category books books books books

In Titles 8.0:1 2.0:1 2.0:1 2.3:1

In central roles 3.5:1 1.7:1 1.9:1 1.8:1
In pictures 7.6:1 1.4:1 1.4:1 1.5:1
Animals 95.0:1 3.5:1 3.2:1 3.0:1
Animals and people 11.0:1 1.8:1 1.7:1 1.7:1

decade by sex interaction for all categories (see Table lII). These data show
that there has been a gradual decrease in sexism in nonaward books over
the decades from the 1940s to the 1970s, and that the trend leveled off in
the 1980s. The decline tended to be linear up to the 1970s, with ratios
decreasing from 3 to 5 male characters per female character in each cate-
gory, to less than 2 males for every female.
A breakdown of the books (Caldecott and nonaward) in terms of their
publication dates, before 1970 vs. after 1970, shows how much these ratios
have changed (see Table IV). Prior to 1970, children's literature contained
almost four times as many boys as girls in titles, more than twice as many
boys in central roles, almost twice as many boys in pictures, and nearly
four times as many male animals as female animals. Children's literature
published after 1970 shows a more equitable distribution of male and fe-
male characters in all categories. This is true for both Caldecott winners
226 Kortenhaus and Demarest

0 TITLES
5.0 ~ , ~ ,,~ ~ CENTRALROLES
• PICTURES
4.5
if) ~ / \ • ANIMALS
LU
.-J 4.0
=E
uJ
U.
35
0
I- 3.0
u3
LU
,~ 25

LL 2.0
O
U3 1.5
0
Q:
1.0 .... -E~VI-T-Y--R--A-T!O-. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . . . X ___

0.5

1 i i I

40 50 60 70 80

DECADE
Fig. 1. The change in the ratio of male to female characters portrayed in nonaward
books over the past five decades.

and nonaward books. However, males are still depicted in titles nearly 50%
m o r e often than females in the nonaward books, and male animals are still
represented twice as often as female animals in both types of books. In-
terestingly, a recent study of young men and w o m e n role playing the parent
of a newborn found that they always used masculine names or pronouns
when making up stories about animals ( D e m a r e s t & Glinos, 1992).
In addition to the content analysis of the categories used in the Col-
lins et al. (1984) and Weitzman et al. (1972) studies, an assessment was
m a d e of the types of activities that the male and female story characters
were involved in. These activities were categorized as either instrumental
independent activities or passive dependent activities. The activities of chil-
dren pictured in the books were shown to be strongly stereotyped by sex,
especially in the earlier literature. A role analysis of activities engaged in
by male and female characters across all decades showed that males domi-
nated the instrumental behaviors (M = 293; F = 54), while females out-
n u m b e r e d the m a l e s (F = 249; M = 29) in a l m o s t all passive and
d e p e n d e n t roles (see Table V). Boys displayed energy, girls displayed pla-
cidity in an overwhelming n u m b e r of the books. Prior to the 1960s females
w e r e rarely r e p r e s e n t e d in any i n s t r u m e n t a l or i n d e p e n d e n t charac-
terizations (F = 5; M = 117), and males were rarely depicted as dependent
Children's Literature 227

Table III. Summary of Analyses of Variance of Sex Differences in Titles,

Central Roles, Pictures, and Animals Over Five Decades of Nonaward
Books
Category Source df M F p
Titles Decade (D) 4 59.63 6.70 .0001
Sex (S) 1 28.84 3.24 .07
D x S 4 57.76 6.49 .0001
Error 240 8.90

Central roles Decade 4 0.31 0.70 .59

Sex 1 14.89 33.83 .0001
D x S 4 1.11 2.53 .04
Error 240 0.44

Pictures Decade 4 1560.48 2.85 .02

Sex 1 6258.38 11.43 .0008
D x S 4 887.01 1.62 .17
Error 240 547.54

Animals Decade 4 736.51 6.24 .0001

Sex 1 3549.16 30.07 .0001
D x S 4 329.30 2.79 .03
Error 240 118.03

or nurturing (M = 4; F = 112). Even when females were depicted as active,

there was usually a more independent male character. For example, in the
book Down, Down the Mountain, after planting a turnip garden to earn
money for shoes, a girl and a boy rode a horse to town to sell turnips.
Using the categories of Table V, the girl might be described as showing
instrumental independent action along with her brother: however, the in-
strumental equality is superficial. The behaviors the children exhibit in pur-
suing their goal are clearly colored by gender role stereotyping. In planting
the garden, the boy did the hoeing while his sister placed the seeds. On
their trip to town, he held the reins and controlled the horse while she
rode behind and held on to him. Finally, when they arrived in town without
any turnips to sell, the girl began crying while her brother set out to resolve
the situation. As noted by Jacklin and Mischel (1973), there are ways other
than frequency counts for sexism to reveal itself. It occurs in the presence
of disparaging statements, character traits or physical attributes, such as
young girls being valued for their beauty while older women are often deni-
grated as hags and witches or are stereotyped in limiting domestic roles.
A study Freid (1982), which analyzed 299 children's stories from 1974 and
1981, drew the disturbing conclusion that girls were portrayed with docile
and inferior qualities more often in the 1981 literature than in 1974.
228 Kortenhaus and Demarest

Table IV. N u m b e r and Ratio of Male to Female Characters Portrayed in Caldecott and
Nonaward Children's Literature Before and After 1970
Caldecott books
Pre-1970 Post-1970
Category M F Ratio M F Ratio

Titles 8 2 4.0:1 6 5 1.2:1

Central role 18 7 2.6:1 7 6 1~2:1
Pictures 631 386 1.6:1 253 228 1,1:1
Animals 233 63 3.7:1 65 31 2,1:1
Aniamls and people 864 449 1.9:1 318 259 1.2:1

Nonaward books
Pre-1970 Post-1970
Category M F Ratio M F Ratio

Titles 45 13 3.5:1 26 18 1.4:1

Central role 82 31 2.6:1 49 40 1.2:1
Pictures 2399 1321 1.8:1 1423 1293 1.1:1
Animals 1094 301 3.6:1 321 172 1.9:1
Aniamls and people 3493 1622 2.1:1 1744 1435 1.2:1

Starting in the 1960s and continuing into the 1980s, females were oc-
casionally pictured in a more active manner, but males still outnumbered
females in agentic behavior by a ratio of 3:1 (M = 176; F = 49) while
females outnumbered males in passive behavior by 4.6 to 1 (F = 137; M =
25). Sometimes the gender role stereotyping was blatant, In No, Agatha, a
1980 publication, it is obvious that Agatha wanted to be more active and
independent but her parents continually suppressed her desires by telling
her to "act like a lady."

CONCLUSION

Children's literature has been under close scrutiny for the past two
decades to determine whether measurable ground has been gained in dis-
pelling the inequalities represented by gender role stereotyping in books
for children. Have there been significant changes, or is the rhetoric out-
pacing the actual progress? The answer turns out to depend on the way
the data are analyzed.
The findings of the present study are consistent with those reported
by Collins et al. (1984). Comparisons of all chosen items confirmed the
Children's Literature 229

T a b l e V. F r e q u e n c y C o u n t by D e c a d e a n d Sex o f C e n t r a l R o l e C h a r a c t e r s P o r t r a y e d in
A c t i v e a n d Passive Activities

I n s t r u m e n t a l - i n d e p e n d e n t activities

1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

Activity M F M F M F M F M F

Playing ball 9 -- 3 -- 6 1 8 3 7 2
R i d i n g bike o r h o r s e 3 2 5 -- 5 -- 6 1 4 1
Climbing 2 -- 6 -- 2 1 5 2 3 2
Running 3 -- 8 -- 5 -- 5 1 4 2
Swimming/fishing 3 -- 7 -- 2 -- 6 2 1 3
Helping others 8 1 7 -- 8 2 9 2 10 4
Making something 5 -- 3 1 5 2 7 3 4 1
Solving a p r o b l e m 9 1 10 -- 12 1 8 1 11 2
A c t i v e o u t d o o r play 12 -- 14 -- 10 2 14 5 9 3

Totals 54 4 63 1 55 9 68 20 53 20
R a t i o s ( m a l e s to f e m a l e s ) (13.5:1) (63;1) (6.1:1) (3.4:1) (2.65:1)

P a s s i v e - d e p e n d e n t activities

1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

Activity M F M F M F M F M F

Playing h o u s e -- 4 -- 8 -- 3 -- 2 -- 1
Picking flowers -- 2 -- 3 -- 3 -- 1 -- 2
H o u s e w o r k helping -- 8 -- 7 -- 4 -- 2 -- 2
C a r i n g for sibling -- 4 -- 6 -- 7 2 5 2 4
C a r i n g for p e t 1 1 2 -- 2 3 -- 2 1 4
W a t c h i n g o t h e r s play -- 10 -- 15 2 g 1 11 3 14
N e e d i n g help -- 8 1 6 1 9 2 6 -- 5
Causing a problem -- 2 -- 5 -- 3 2 4 1 3
Q u i e t i n d o o r play -- 11 -- 12 1 10 3 10 2 9

Totals 1 50 3 62 6 50 10 43 9 44
R a t i o s ( f e m a l e s to m a l e s ) (50:1) (20.6:1) (8.3:1) (4.3:1) (4.8:1)

trend of decreasing sexism in children's picture books. In fact, the equity

ratio of characterizations of males and females has come to be quite closely
balanced. The results are not only consistent with the Collins et al. study
but replicated some of the exact ratios. Thus, the steps taken by publishers
and authors to reduce gender role stereotyping by increasing the number
of female characters in children's literature has already occurred. Interest-
ingly, this change began well before the women's movement in the 1960's,
suggesting that something other than a feminist perspective motivated the
change.
230 Kortenhaus and Demarest

The analysis of the type of roles in which male and female story char-
acters were portrayed, however, reveals a quite different conclusion about
sexism in children's literature. Boys were characterized far more often as
instrumental and independent, while girls were made to look passive and
dependent. Girls were cast in a nurturing role far more often than boys.
For example, female characters helped, watched over, or cared for a sibling
or pet far more frequently than boy characters (F = 117; M = 16). The
activities of males and females were so extremely disparate in children's
literature examined from the 1940s through the 1960s that this topic re-
quires special comment. In stories that pictured boys and girls together,
only boys assumed the role of dominance and authority, while the girls
were cast as helpless, incompetent, and unambitious. Even stories with a
female in the central role tended to show her needing help to solve a prob-
lem. Invariably the help was provided by an older male. The things girls
do and say in these books reflect the stereotype that "all girls are emo-
tional." Mothers are shown as ineffectual and appear overwhelmed by
problems, always needing to rely on fathers or sons to solve their dilemmas.
Fathers, on the other hand, are portrayed in a capable, take-charge manner,
seldom consulting the mother about any decision.
While it is encouraging to note that the instrumental role of females
in children's literature has increased twofold between the 1960s and 1980s,
even this progress seems inconsequential when taken in the context of over-
all male activity. In the last two decades, boys were still shown engaging
in active outdoor play three times as often as girls, and they solved prob-
lems five to eight times as often. Girls, it would seem, are still busy creating
problems that require masculine solutions. These characterizations provide
children with a strong message as to the gender appropriateness of active
and passive roles.
The increased female representation in titles, central roles, and pic-
tures would appear to indicate that authors of the 1980s are more aware
and sensitive to women's changing roles; however, the way in which these
females are pictured is still sexist and biased. The late 1960s and early
1970s was a period of time marked by considerable national attention to
the women's movement with emphasis on the need to overcome gender
discrimination. Studies of children's literature from that period pointed to
a hopeful trend of more equitable representation and a possible decrease
in gender role stereotyping (Hillman, 1974; Feminists on Children's Media,
1974). Later studies, however, seemed to indicate that while representation
had indeed moved closer to parity, the trend of decreased gender role
stereotyping in c h a r a c t e r portrayal and activity had slowed down
(Dougherty & Engel, 1987; Freid, 1982; Williams, 1987). Indeed, of the 60
books examined that were published between 1970 and 1986, only 1 pot-
Children's Literature 231

trayed a working mother. Why are there so few working mothers repre-
sented in children's literature? If children's literature represents a tool in
the socialization process of our young, it would appear that we are teaching
our young that women are not supposed to have jobs outside the home.
Given the fact that 60% of mothers with children under 14 are currently
employed (Wallis, 1987), we must conclude that children's books do not
adequately reflect the changing role of women in the workplace of Ameri-
can society in the 1980s.
The most striking characteristic of this study is the finding that even
after two decades of intense examination and analysis by more than a dozen
studies, the roles portrayed in children's literature do not present an ac-
curate representation or close approximation of the actual behavior of
males and females in our society. The representation of males and females
in a variety of roles is needed, and girls and women, in particular, must
be shown to a greater degree in roles that are active and productive, rather
than the dull, unimaginative portrayals that have been painted in the past.
We may also expect that a change of this sort can occur fairly rapidly. The
number of females in the central roles of children's books has changed
quickly in recent years, and we might anticipate that greater sensitivity to
the need for changes in the roles played by the boys, girls, men, and women
of this literature can occur just as rapidly. In view of the fact that gender
role bias can have far-reaching effects on the development of children's
perception of themselves, it would seem that publishers and authors must
still make a concerted effort to provide their young readers with books
that are a more realistic reflection of today's changing gender role patterns.

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