As children develop, there are many environmental
influences on their socialization to adult roles. Influences include
parents, media, peers and school experience. The reading materials
children use in school show males and females in various roles; the portrayal
of males and females in those materials has a strong impact on how children
view male and female roles in society. This overview of literature
dealing with the influence of reading materials on gender role socialization
suggests that adherence to traditional gender roles is encouraged and perpetuated
by the books used in schools today much as it was 25 years ago.
As an influence on gender role learning, the school setting is one in which children develop friendships, model teacher behaviors, and learn from textbooks and other reading materials which reinforce gender stereotypes and biases (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Best, 1983). History books, for example, divide the past into a time frame based on men’s lives - wars, politics, government - and generally ignore women’s lives or accomplishments (Basow, 1992). It has been suggested that within the school setting there are three curricula of gender role learning:
Studies have shown that teachers often give more attention to boys than to girls (Thorne, 1993). This attention seems to contribute to the fact that males tend to dominate the classroom (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Basow, 1992). A meta analysis of 81 studies of classroom interaction showed that boys received 56% of classroom interaction with the teacher and girls received 44% (Kelly, 1988). This same meta analysis also found that although girls raise their hands more often, teachers call on boys with more frequency. In addition, boys receive more praise from the teacher even through they are viewed as more troublesome (Kelly, 1988). One study found that the best predictor of student success in the 7th and 8th grades is teacher judgment. Unfortunately, that teacher adjustment is frequently biased in favor of males (Farkas, Grobe, Sheehan, & Shuan, 1990).
Gender differentiation is frequently the basis for organization, control, and management of the classroom (Croll & Moses, 1991). This differentiation is not always seen as negative, however. Croll & Moses (1991) suggest that although girls are treated differently than boys in elementary school, they are not disadvantaged because of this. It cannot be denied, though, that within the school setting girls learn that they occupy a different place in the educational system than boys. This learning includes an understanding that their role is to make fewer demands and receive less attention and fewer resources (Lloyd & Duveen, 1992).
Girls are less likely than boys to be green arms, those children who put their entire bodies into their quest for teacher attention. Green arms raise their arms high, move them around, thrust the air, and are likely to make noise in order to be called on (Sadker & Sadker, 1994). Female students are more likely to crook their arms when they raise them, giving a more passive attempt to gain attention. The end result is that teachers are more likely to call on the green arm student, contributing to the domination of the classroom by the boys (Sadker & Sadker, 1994). Ironically, the norms of school include sitting quietly, cooperating with one another, and concentrating on the task at hand. It has been suggested that both boys and girls suffer conflict over their gender role and the relevant norms of school. However, boys are likely to be more open about the problems they encounter in school, while girls are more likely to keep quiet about any difficulties they face (Silvern & Katz, 1986).
The amount of time teachers wait after asking students a question also favors boys. Girls take a few extra seconds of thought before raising their hands to answer a question. Boys are more likely to be thinking of their answer while raising their hands. Because teachers only wait about nine-tenths of a second before calling on a student, boys tend to be called on more often (Sadker & Sadker, 1994).
One group of researchers has identified six aspects of the social representation of gender in the school setting. These aspects serve as resources for the expression of social gender identities:
Gender Bias in Children’s Reading Materials
Recently, there has been much attention given
to the topics of gender bias and gender stereotyping within the school
setting (Witt, 1997; Davies & Banks, 1992; Purcell & Stewart, 1990;
Luke, Cooke & Luke, 1986; Jacklin & Mischel, 1973). Those
who have studied the school setting have often found that teachers have
certain gender-stereotyped expectations of boys and girls; for example,
that girls have a helpless approach toward achievement and
that boys use mastery-oriented behavior. When students
behave in a manner opposite from these expectations, they are treated as
being ‘different’ or unusual. Because helpless behaviors are reinforced
for girls, girls may be less likely to engage in assertive behaviors (Boggiano
& Barrett, 1991).
An aspect of the school setting that has been shown
to be of interest to many researchers is the prevalence of gender bias
within the books that children use in school. Often, children’s literature
and basal readers contain words, pictures, and descriptions that indicate
that it is more desirable to be male than it is to be female (Witt, 1997;
Davis, 1984; Weitzman, 1977; Jacklin & Mischel, 1973). It has
been well- documented that children who have high self esteem value themselves
and evaluate their abilities highly (Santrock, 1994; Schickedanz, Schickedanz,
Hansen & Forsyth, 1993; Jensen & Kingston, 1986). It is logical
to assume that when children view themselves in a negative way, they are
less likely to be successful in life. From the educational focus
of Froebel in 1895 through the make-believe world of childhood fairy tales,
right on up to the attitudes and behaviors exhibited in many currently-used
elementary readers, males are seen as better, faster, smarter, funnier,
more inquisitive and just generally more superior than females. Consider
the following quotation from the preface to Froebel’s book:
Because children’s books play such an important
role in the development of fundamental reading skills of school children,
it is natural that the attitudes and values exhibited in these readers
are likely to be accepted by those children who read them. While
the attitude of Mr. Froebel in the passage above may be understandable
considering the norms of society during the 1890s, it is a less understandable
viewpoint in the 1990s. At a time when women and men are viewed as
equals by much of the population, bias is still evident in the readers
and literature that children are exposed to. For example, it has
been found that in American children’s books:
- there are 2.3 males in the title for every female.
- there are 2.9 male adult central characters for every female.
- there are 2.4 male child central characters for every female.
- there are 4.3 male animal central characters for every female.
- in books that won the Caldecott Medal ten boys are pictured for
every girl (Weiss, 1991).
Because role models help a child develop, it
is important that they not be too rigid or narrowly defined. And
because obsolete, narrow role models make it difficult for children to
grow into happy, productive adults, it is important that children be exposed
to role models which are based on social reality (Purcell & Stewart,
1990). When a child spends nearly 20 years reading books that encourage
males and traditional masculine behaviors and ignore or discourage females
and traditional feminine behaviors, this is likely to play a major role
in the development of gender attitudes (Rudman, 1984).
Children’s literature and basal readers reach children
at an early and impressionable age. Females in children’s reading
materials are sometimes so passive and have so little to do that they are
simply colorless (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Rudman, 1984). This
lack of definition, as well as the stereotyping, of women, serves to reinforce
females as less important and lets students come to understand that girls
don’t have as much fun as boys, girls can’t have as many adventures as
boys, and that girls need to rely on outside forces to rescue them from
their problems while boys solve problems through their own cleverness and
creativity (Jacklin & Mischel, 1973).
Gender Socialization Through Children’s Books
The effect of gender bias within children’s
reading materials is felt by boys and girls alike as they grow and develop
in an environment rife with suggestions of inequality as the natural order.
In a subtle way over the course of childhood, partly through the books
that they read, children are socialized to understand that boys are aggressive
and girls are passive, boys have adventures and girls get to hear about
the adventures, boys are encouraged to be independent while girls are expected
to rely on boys to help them manage difficulties (Beal, 1994; Hargreaves
& Colley, 1986). Very early on, children learn that there is
a social meaning to the label boy or girl , and that
generally boy conjures up more positive reactions and responses
(Cahill, 1983). This early socialization continues once the child
enters school, where elementary readers, history textbooks, and math and
science books reinforce society’s ideas about gender roles through written
language (Olson, 1980).
It has been variously suggested that textbooks account
for anywhere from 75% to 90% of school instruction (Wooward & Elliott,
1992; Meece, 1987; Olson, 1980). It is evident that the books children
use in school play an important role in their learning. Many of these
books are filled with racial, ethnic, social class, and gender stereotypes,
and influence children in negative ways. For example, an examination
of 113 recently published books for children found that dependency themes
which emphasize helpless behavior for females continue to be commonly used
(White, 1986).
Even when positive changes are reported they sometimes
need further examination. For example, a 1981 analysis of basal readers
found that 70% of characters in nontraditional roles were female; however,
76% of characters in traditional roles were male, suggesting that more
expansion into nontraditional roles for males is needed (Scott in Meece,
1987). More recently, a content analysis of 16 widely-used basal
readers from six major publishers showed that female characters could be
classified as androgynous (exhibiting a balance of traditional masculine
and traditional feminine traits) for all but one of of the publishers.
Male characters in all the books, however, were never classified as androgynous
and in fact rarely exhibited anything but traditional masculine behaviors
(Witt, 1997). Children themselves, when writing stories of their
own, are likely to write about male characters who have a wide range of
occupations and adventures, while their female characters are much more
limited in their behaviors (Romantowski & Trepanier-Street, 1987).
Looking beyond the text of children’s readers, research
has shown that photographs and illustrations can serve an instructional
function in those readers. Illustrations may serve as examples or
extend the content of the text (Duchastel & Waller, 1979). In
many cases, however, illustrations may be inappropriate or have no relevance
to the material being presented (Woodward, 1987). An analysis of
63 recently published textbooks found that content very often does not
reflect current thinking about the issues or subjects being taught (Woodward,
Elliott & Nagel, 1986). An example of this might be books which
indicate that men are primary earners in families even though female-headed,
single-parent households are the fastest growing family form in the United
States (Lauer & Lauer, 1994). Because the textbooks and readers
that schools purchase have potential deficiencies, both overt (illustrations
which are not relevant) and covert (subtle discriminations such as those
found in gender bias and stereotyping), the quality of instruction for
children may be hampered for many years (Woodward, 1987).
Most cultures use storytelling to transmit values and attitudes to children; this includes stories found in children’s readers (Kortenhaus & Demarest, 1993). Because the books children read in school play such a potentially important defining role in their lives, it is natural to expect that the attitudes and values exhibited in them will be accepted by the children who read them. As children grow older, they are praised and rewarded for conforming to society’s expectations of gender-stereotyped behaviors. It has been shown that children who are exposed to books with gender stereotypic behaviors are more likely to demonstrate stereotypic behaviors (Ashton, 1983). While there are and should be differences between the genders, a problem occurs when the attributes of one gender are deemed more valuable than the attributes of the other.
Development of a Child’s Self Concept
In Figure 1, the socialization influences of the school are shown, including those factors related to the role played by reading materials regarding gender role development. According to Santrock (1994), families, peer relations, the media, and school all play a major role in the development of a child’s self concept. While parents are the primary influence on how children are socialized for their roles in our culture during the early years of life, once children enter school they are exposed to a broad range of experiences and materials. Those learning experiences that are a part of the child’s school life, taken together, become an important component in the child’s developing sense of self (Santrock, 1994; Kaplan, 1991).
-------------------------------Figure 1 about here--------------------------------------
The components of school listed in the figure
all play a role in the gender socialization of children. Teachers
have a particular curriculum that they follow which encompasses basic learning
skills - reading, mathematics, language arts, social studies, and so on.
Assimilation occurs when children incorporate new information into their
existing knowledge (Piaget, 1954). The method of instruction used
by teachers has an impact on how the information is assimilated by the
child. Teachers using gender biased methods of teaching, whether
knowingly or unknowingly, such as calling on boys more frequently than
girls or praising boys for achievement and girls for appearance, are helping
students to assimilate gender biases.
Also present in schools is a hidden curriculum
which includes those learning experiences that are not always overt and
that include such things as the unwritten attitudes and biases often found
in the method of instruction, or in the texts of the books children read
for school (Kaplan, 1991). Another term used regarding what is learned
in school is evaded curriculum , referring to those matters which
are important to the lives of students but which are touched on briefly
or not at all in school. For example, one evaded topic in schools
is the issue of gender and power; others are sexual harassment, loss of
self confidence and lowering of self esteem in young girls as they near
adolescence, and gender role stereotyping in the curriculum (Youth Policy
Institute, 1992). It is suggested that schools would do well to address
the ways that ascribed power (that based on race, class, gender) affects
the individual lives of students (Youth Policy Institute, 1992).
Of the various factors that help shape gender-typed
behaviors, role models and imitation are extremely influential (Beal, 1994;
Basow, 1992; Hargreaves & Colley, 1986; Bandura, 1977). Children
are exposed not only to parents but to models in the outside world - peers,
teachers, television and characters in the books they read (Kaplan, 1991).
Many school materials communicate the message that females are less important
than males. Some elementary texts and children’s readers do not portray
women in positive roles, nor do they show women holding major positions
or performing important tasks (Shepherd-Look in Kaplan, 1991). Because
the reality of life today is that approximately half the U.S. workforce
is female and that less than 10% of American families fit the traditional
framework of dad working, mom at home with
children , children need role models, including those in books, which
accurately represent the world they occupy (Lauer & Lauer, 1994; Coleman,
1988). When schools continue to use books which are gender stereotyped,
they are not just condoning the attitudes present in the books, but are
sanctioning and verifying those attitudes as official (Olson, 1980).
Some have suggested that the selection process for the books used in schools
is entered into naively, with little critical thought given to what type
of books should be chosen (Luke, Cooke & Luke, 1986). All too
often the result is books which perpetuate gender, racial and social class
stereotypes.
Many of the social problems faced in the U.S.
today center around women who grow up in a system that discourages them
from realizing their potential as human beings. Single parenthood,
unfulfilled goals, divorce, lack of job skills, and interrupted education
are all difficulties which occur, in part, because little girls grow into
young women believing in myths which are perpetuated and encouraged by
their families, their peers, and the school experiences and materials they
are exposed to, including the stories they read. The white knight
on the white horse who rescues the fair damsel is a notion that becomes
firmly fixed in the minds of children through the literature they read.
Little girls are raised to value marriage and having children and go into
these life events with the assumption that a husband (with a job) will
always be in the picture.
Young women have traditionally been more likely
to put off their own education and put their husband’s schooling first
because the husband’s education and career are seen as more important.
Studies have looked at the devaluation of women across a range of areas.
Some areas that have been examined are components of sexism
such as negative attitudes toward women (prejudice), beliefs about
women that reinforce or involve a basic assumption of their inferiority
(stereotypes), and acts of exclusion directed toward women (discrimination)
(Lott, 1985). Prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination are often
found in the readers children use in school (Purcell & Stewart, 1990;
St. Peter, 1979).
Gender stereotyping begins at a very early age with
parents who reinforce different behaviors and attitudes for their children
based primarily on whether they are a girl or a boy. This gender
stereotyping continues with a child’s early day care or
school experience where it has been found that boys play more frequently
in the block area and outdoors, while girls are more likely to sing, sew,
swing and play dress up (Bloch, 1987). As a child moves through school,
attitudes toward gender and gender stereotypes are reinforced, by teachers,
peers and school materials. The books children read are a powerful
influence on the values that children embrace and eventually live by.
The little girl who reads her history textbook and learns that the important
figures were Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln
comes to understand that women were unimportant (or at least not as important
as the men) throughout history (Rudman, 1984; Council on Interracial Books
for Children, 1976). One analysis of textbooks in three states revealed
that women’s contributions to history are still routinely ignored (Sadker,
Sadker & Stulberg, 1993). Cognitively developing children who
are learning to read often find in their readers the same message.
Studies of Gender Bias in Children’s Books
A 1972 content analysis of 134 elementary reading
books found that males were portrayed more often, were seen in more and
varied roles, and were shown as more active than females (Women on Words
and Images, 1972). This study also found that the ratio of boy-centered
stories to girl-centered stories was 5 to 2; the ratio of adult male main
characters to adult female main characters was 3 to 1.
A replication of this study 18 years later found
many improvements in the way females were portrayed. However, many
of the stories which were examined showed girls needing to be rescued by
someone, while boys almost never had this experience. Boys were also very
often shown as being forced to conceal or deny their feelings to show their
manhood (Purcell & Stewart, 1990). Male characters in children’s
reading materials are frequently encouraged to aspire to individual achievement,
and even when the idea of cooperation is present, it is usually in the
story as an aid to winning (Tetenbaum & Pearson, 1989). Examples
of traditional masculine and feminine characteristics are found in children’s
books, as evidenced by boy characters being more likely to wonder who is
right and fair and girl characters questioning who needs more and how to
give it (Tetenbaum & Pearson, 1989).
A more recent analysis of sixteen basal readers from six publishers found that male characters outnumbered female characters in all 16 books, with some books having a more than two-to-one ratio of male to female characters (Witt, 1997). This same study also found that illustrations of male characters outnumbered those of female characters in all the books. Female characters in the books of five of the publishers were shown as having a balance of masculine and feminine traits (androgynous), but male characters in the books of all six publishers were strongly masculine (exhibiting traits such as decisiveness, leadership, independence), and rarely exhibited any traits that would be classified as traditionally feminine (gentleness, understanding, sensitivity) (Witt, 1997).
A study of the books published for children between 1900 and 1984 found that male characters outnumbered female characters 2.7 to 1. It was found that in the early years covered by the study (1902-1919), females appeared as title characters in children’s books more often than they did in the later years of the study. While girls were portrayed in a more egalitarian fashion in the 1980s, women were still seen primarily in traditional family roles (Grauerholz & Pescosolido, 1989).
During preschool and early elementary school
years, children are exposed to gender stereotypes through picture books.
An analysis of 206 books for children aged 3-6 years found that males were
seen as having predominately instrumental (traditionally masculine) characteristics
or in instrumental activities 91% of the time and with expressive (traditionally
feminine) characteristics or in expressive activities 9% of the time.
Females were shown in expressive situations or exhibiting expressive traits
79% of the time and in instrumental situations or exhibiting instrumental
traits only 21% of the time (St. Peter, 1979).
Research has shown that the stories found in children’s
reading materials are a means of perpetuating fundamental cultural values
and myths (Weitzman, 1977). Fairy tales such as Cinderella and Sleeping
Beauty foster the idea of young girls only
needing to be beautiful and kind in order to have their greatest wish
come true - marrying the handsome prince and living happily ever after.
This philosophy continues to be perpetuated in many of the more modern
books and stories that children read. Folktales, for example, which
are frequently found in modern basal readers, have been found to have a
much higher percentage of male characters than female characters (Purcell
& Stewart, 1990; Weitzman, 1977).
In their replication of the Women on Words and Images
study, Purcell and Stewart (1990) found that 70% of folktales were male
focused and only 30% were female focused. Because folktales are often
chosen to be included in basal readers, this contributes to the overrepresentation
of males and underrepresentation of females in the books children are exposed
to in school.
Table 1 below illustrates some of the findings of six separate studies of gender bias in children’s reading materials. These studies were conducted between 1972 and 1995. As indicated in the table, the ratio of males to females depicted in the books analyzed, while improving from the 7 to 1 ratio found in 1972, still does not have a fair representation of female characters. In addition, males still primarily exhibit traditional masculine traits (aggressiveness, daring, dominance) and seldom show expressive characteristics (nurturing, gentleness, empathy). Female characters exhibit many expressive traits, although in four of the studies, it was found that females were shown as having a mixture of traditional masculine and traditional feminine traits, and thus show more of an androgynous orientation. In only one study were males shown to exhibit a balance of masculine and feminine traits.
---------------------------Table 1 here-----------------------------------
There have been many studies which have examined gender bias in children’s reading materials over the past twenty-five years; the studies listed in the table are a fair representation of some of the research conducted during the past twenty-five years. Much of the research dealing with gender bias in readers and children’s literature has centered on frequency counts of male and female characters. Although some recent studies have found that numbers have improved and male and female characters are found in children’s books in more equal numbers, frequently their depiction is not relevant to children’s lives or society today (Purcell & Stewart, 1990).
Gender bias does not always occur in overt,
obvious ways; it is often much more subtle. The language used in
children’s readers often emphasizes masculinity - repairman, mailman, salesman.
Women are more frequently seen as emotional while men are seen
as rational (Council on Interracial Books for Children, 1976).
One suggestion for de-emphasizing the prevalence of masculinity in the
language used in children’s readers is to use substitute words such as
ancesters for forefathers and community instead of brotherhood (Hendrick,
1994).
Books for children have very often limited choices
and maintained gender discrimination (Purcell & Stewart, 1990; Grauerholz
& Pescosolido, 1989). Most traditional readers show females dressed
in skirts or dresses, no matter what their occupations or activities.
Illustrations in children’s books have also placed women in passive observer
roles while men are pictured as active (Rudman, 1984). Studies have
frequently shown that illustrations confirm the subordinate, less valued
role for females while stressing the active adventuresome role for males
(Witt, 1997; Purcell & Stewart, 1990; Rudman, 1984; Weitzman, 1977).
When one objective of schools is to provide equal educational opportunities
for all students, they fall short of fulfilling their goal when they use
books that show limited, restricted gender role behaviors (Zimet, 1972).
Children develop an idea of the relative worth of
each of the genders very early in life with young boys often describing
girls as clean, neat, quiet, gentle and fearful (Weitzman, 1977).
Hartley in 1959 reported that by the time children are four years of
age they recognize that the primary feminine role is housekeeping and
the primary masculine role is wage earning. More recent research
confirms that young children continue to categorize certain behaviors and
occupations strictly by gender (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Thorne, 1993).
Children’s stories which have women as characters often do not portray
them in a variety of roles, instead keeping them within the family setting
(Grauerholz & Pescosolido, 1989). The books that children are
exposed to in school frequently portray males as being comptetent and achievement
oriented, while the image of females is that they are limited in what they
do and are less competent in their ability to accomplish things (Kortenhaus
& Demarest, 1993).
Summary
This overview of literature has examined the
effect of children’s reading materials on their gender role socialization.
Traditionally, male characters in children’s readers have been favored
over female characters, as illustrated by the fact that there are more
male characters than female, there are more biographies of males than females,
there are more illustrations of males than of females. In addition,
the attitudes and behaviors of male characters are highly masculine and
feed into traditional male stereotypes, with male characters rarely exhibiting
even a hint of a traditional feminine behavior (Witt, 1997). These
findings have remained fairly constant through studies conducted from the
early 1970s to the present time. While there have been some improvements
in how females are portrayed in children’s readers, and females are likely
to be shown as having a balance of traits, the portrayal of males in readers
today is much the same as it has been in the past.
Because elementary readers play such a prominent
role in children’s lives during very impressionable years, and because
school and reading materials are one means of socializing children, it
is important that educators make efforts to use books which are fair and
unbiased toward both sexes. However, even schools that want to make
efforts to be fair sometimes have difficulty finding readers that conform
to fair standards. Publishers often state that girls will read anything
while boys avoid stories that have girls as main characters (Rudman, 1984;
Council on Interracial Books for Children, 1976). Publishers justify
not changing their books with the argument that it is not financially possible
for them to print fair and unbiased books (Olson, 1980). Another
viewpoint, however, is that textbooks are a relatively minor part of a
school’s budget, and changes could be made in the direction of choosing
books which are gender fair (Altbach, 1991). Students’ perceptions
of the classroom climate, including the books they read, have much to do
with how students view themselves and their belief that effort leads to
success. Schools encourage students to have learning goals and objectives.
The readers that students use play an important role in helping students
reach those goals, by showing children ways to view themselves and their
place in the world.
Mastery goals focus on the intrinsic value of learning,
and thus encourage students to improve their level of competence based
on self-referenced standards (Ames, 1992). When those self-referenced
standards are based on information that is gender biased, male and female
students alike are short-changed and sometimes are not able to reach maximum
potential. To have a fair and unbiased society, it is vital that parents
and teachers make efforts to socialize children in a fair way. Ensuring
that children have access to gender fair reading materials during their
school years is one small but important step in the direction of that fair
society.
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