Children's Literature and Gender

Abstract

A large part of children's learning and everyday life includes reading illustrated children's books. Children's literature is one of many agents of socialization in children's lives. Gender images in children's books influence children's gender socialization. Research on gender representations within children's literature has increased significantly since the 1970s. Overall, research suggests that there are many gender disparities in the way female and male characters are represented in children's books. Most research on gender images within children's books focuses on award‐winning and popular children's literature from the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries in the United States. Although there have been notable improvements in the equality of gender images within children's books over time, most research concludes there are still many gender stereotypes represented and male central characters are disproportionately represented more than female central characters.