Gender Representation In Literature

This essay is written according to the conventions of the MLA:

Gender Representation in Children’s Literature

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you 'll go.” - Dr. Seuss. Books influence the reader in many different ways whether it is gaining knowledge or learning a new language. However, the first time encountering a book is from the perspective of a listener. It is the parents who read to their children and, unknowingly, already by choosing a certain book with a certain content influence the way children may adopt a point of view on society structures or gender roles. Books have a considerable influence on children and their perception on society structures and gender roles;

Similarly to the studies mentioned above, they cover not only frequency of stereotypes but also the frequency of women and men characters included in children’s books in general. It is important to show males and females in different non-stereotypical situations, however, in order to create equality in the representation of men and women, it is important when using male and female characters in one story to have the same frequency. Especially the study of Masterson focuses on the frequency of (un)equal representation and, in general, the frequency of female/male characters and whether there still is an underrepresentation of women. According to

This area has not been explored extensively so far, and research on the exclusion/inclusion of rainbow families is a current subject. Is equality in children’s books even possible? More and more families are not typical, consisting of mother, father and child. There are family constellations such as patchwork families with step sisters and step brothers, a family with two mothers and a child but no father,.. However, this is a topic for further research, but it is important to mention that the equality does not stop when male and female characters are included equally. The importance of including everybody, men and women, lesbians and gays, bisexuals and transsexuals is also important. Society cannot stop here and exclude this issue from children’s books, for the simple reason that children are the ones whom we can give the opportunity to alter the view on society and the