what does it all mean?
After analyzing six different children's books ranging from different reading levels and the years 1998 to 2015, I've concluded that the majority of children's books still follow traditional gender role attitudes because 4 out of the 6, more than 50%, complied with traditional gender ideas.
Is this surprising? I had predicted that gender attitudes in children's book would reflect our society's more transitional view, having characteristics of both traditional and egalitarian (gender neutral). I felt that most children's books feature animals, aiding in more gender neutral stories but instead I believe that animals are the characters in children's stories simply to add interest. Every story is going to contain interactions between males and females, parents and children because they are meant to help children relate lessons about how to interact with others and solve problems to their own environment, which includes a lot of interaction with siblings, parents, or classmates. Since adults still view gender in mostly traditional ways these ideas are reflected onto our children by what we expose them to such as books and children's movies. So these messages/ideas about gender are shaped into our children's minds at a very young and impressionable age when they don't know any different, not until much later in their lives when it is too late.
Perhaps if we provided children with more gender neutral stories our society would have less discrimination towards sex or gender choice, more equal opportunities, and less fear about breaking out of traditional gender norms.
Is this surprising? I had predicted that gender attitudes in children's book would reflect our society's more transitional view, having characteristics of both traditional and egalitarian (gender neutral). I felt that most children's books feature animals, aiding in more gender neutral stories but instead I believe that animals are the characters in children's stories simply to add interest. Every story is going to contain interactions between males and females, parents and children because they are meant to help children relate lessons about how to interact with others and solve problems to their own environment, which includes a lot of interaction with siblings, parents, or classmates. Since adults still view gender in mostly traditional ways these ideas are reflected onto our children by what we expose them to such as books and children's movies. So these messages/ideas about gender are shaped into our children's minds at a very young and impressionable age when they don't know any different, not until much later in their lives when it is too late.
Perhaps if we provided children with more gender neutral stories our society would have less discrimination towards sex or gender choice, more equal opportunities, and less fear about breaking out of traditional gender norms.