Stereotypes Persist in Picture Books

Before you booktalk the Caldecott Honor–winner No, David! (Scholastic, 1998), you may want to consider this: many of today's top picture books still portray gender stereotypes, according to a new study by researchers David Anderson and Mykol Hamilton of Centre College in Danville, KY.

The two researchers don't just stop at David Shannon's book about a naughty little boy who breaks things. They also name Caldecott Medal–winner Snowflake Bentley (1998) by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Caldecott Honor books such as H. A. and Margret Rey's Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World (2000, both Houghton); David Wiesner's Sector 7 (Clarion, 1999); and Peter Sís's Starry Messenger (Farrar, 1996).

Anderson and Hamilton examined 200 award-winning or best-selling picture books mainly published between 1995 and 2001 and discovered an alarming under-representation of female characters. “Picture books continue to provide nightly reinforcement of the idea that boys and men are more interesting and important than are girls and women,” says the study, recently published in the academic journal Sex Roles.

Among popular books, 95 had male main characters, but only 52 had female leading characters. There were also close to twice as many male as female adult characters overall per book.

When it came to child characters, boys appeared in 53 percent more pictures than girls. Women were also typically portrayed as “nurturers” who often had no occupations. And if they did work outside the home, they generally held gender-stereotyped jobs such as a secretary.

“One of the things we find is that the boys are outside doing rugged things and the girls are inside playing with dolls,” Anderson says. “Both my daughter and my son can do all these things if they want to. But if they grow up with all these stereotypes, they're going to think that all these doors are closed to them.”

The findings are a follow-up to a 2005 study analyzing the parenting images in 200 of the most popular picture books. That study found that “fathers never hug babies, they never kiss babies, they never feed babies,” Anderson adds. “[And] that's not what we want to reinforce.”