Blog Post: A Study on Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Literature in Germany
Gender stereotyping in children’s literature is just as much of an issue in Germany as it is in the United States. In the article, “German Study: Gender Stereotypes Stick in Children’s Literature,” Irene Caselli discusses a study on over 50,000 children’s books on the market in Germany. Children’s literature is extremely important when it comes to child development, and aids in critical thinking and language skills. As children’s books are certainly helpful for child development in these aspects, it can also lead to major gender stereotypes. In children’s literature, “more often than not, male characters are assigned to more dominant roles, exerting strong leadership abilities and displaying the need for toughness and a necessity to suppress emotion” (Heinz para 2). As for females, they are typically represented as being “mild mannered, submissive and worst of all: damsels in distress” (Heinz para 3). In the U.S., this is most frequently seen in fairytales, where the princess needs a prince to save her. This gives off a negative image of women being weak and vulnerable, unable to flourish without the help of a man. “Gender bias is present in the content, language, and illustrations of many children’s books” (Mermelstein para 3). In Germany, a study was conducted that 1.4 million words throughout multiple children’s literature found in the Library for Children’s and Young Adult’s Literature at Goethe University Frankfurt. A trend was found in many books involved in the study; “the word adventure is 2.6 times more likely to appear in a book with a male leading character” (Caselli para 3). Many German children’s books with a male main character incorporate words that are seen to be more masculine, such as “foreign trips, island, and danger.” Words pertaining to female characters include “holidays, animals, and friendship” (Caselli para 3). With this being said, gender stereotyping in children’s literature is an issue in places other than the United States, and children of different ethnicities all around the world are being affected in the same way. “Children develop their idea of gender between ages two and three, and books are one of the many ways through which they can question their surrounding world or reaffirm it” (Caselli para 7). When a child is exposed to these gender ideals, it shapes their identity and they ultimately see themselves as the characters that are presented in the books they are reading. In order to solve this issue, more books need to be put on the market in both the U.S. and Germany where children of both genders are seen as equal. The words that are normally used to describe a male character need to also be used to describe a female character, and vise versa.
Works Cited:
Caselli, Irene. “German Study: Gender Stereotypes stick in Children’s Literature.” Worldcrunch, 2019.
Heinsz, Joshua. “Contemporary gender roles in children’s literature.” Norman Rockwell Museum, 2019.
Mermelstein, Aaron. “How gender is portrayed in children’s literature.” Minnetesol Journal, 2019.