"A Comparison of Gender Representation in Children’s Books" by Katherine Naylor, Noemi Vela et al.
 

A Comparison of Gender Representation in Children’s Books

Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Abbie Thompson

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Psychology

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-24-2025

Abstract

The American Academy of Pediatrics (2021) recommends daily reading for children from birth. While the importance of books is clear, little is known about the language used in them. Books expose children to concepts that shape their real-world understanding (Strouse et al., 2018). In languages like English, many terms are male-biased, which can reinforce gender stereotypes and inequalities (Vainapel et al., 2015). We predict that male representation in children’s books will outnumber female representation.

This study assesses the top 50 picture books from four Indiana counties (N=200), based on circulation data. We used LIWC to examine gender references in these books. Preliminary results from two counties indicate a male bias, with males represented more than females (M=2.91, SD=3.72 vs. M=1.54, SD=2.76). We will conduct a mixed ANOVA to test if this pattern holds, using county as a between-group factor and gender as a within-group factor.

Gender representation influences life outcomes, with women holding only 25% of US Senate seats, 10.6% of Fortune 500 CEO positions, and 32.8% of university presidencies (Schaeffer, 2023). This study helps understand current gender disparities and guide efforts for more equitable representation. The findings will be useful for parents, teachers, and librarians seeking to promote gender equality in children’s literature.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Our research group is made up of different majors, graduation years, and research experience. But, we all do research on language learning and acquisition with Dr. Abbie Thompson in the Psychology department. Our research group is divided into a few projects, and ours is focusing on the language used in children's books. This project has been in the works for two years. The first year we got to help Dr. Thompson with the planning, and this year we have added to our dataset and gained a few new members in the lab.

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