Pownall, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-3734-8006 and Heflick, N. (2023) Mr. Active and Little Miss Passive? The Transmission and Existence of Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Books. Sex Roles, 89 (11-12). pp. 758-773. ISSN 0360-0025
Abstract
Do popular children’s books tend to reflect gender stereotypes, and do parents prefer their daughters to read books reflecting this pattern? We explored these research questions using the popular Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men and Little Miss collection of children’s storybooks, which is a series of individual stories all titled with and based on a binarized gendered character (e.g., Mr. Greedy, Little Miss Sunshine). Using a deductive content analysis approach, Study 1 revealed that the characters in the series’ 81 books tend to behave in gender stereotypical ways, with male characters more adventurous and active and female characters more domestic and passive. Books that had female leads were also more likely to have male secondary characters. In Study 2, participants rated the masculinity/femininity and positivity/negativity of the traits of each of the book series’ titular main characters without knowing the (gendered) book title. The traits used in Little Miss stories were associated with femininity, and the Mr Men story traits with masculinity. In Study 3, when faced with the prospect of selecting a Little Miss book to read to their daughter, parents preferred counter-stereotypical book choices (e.g., Little Miss Brainy). Perceived consistency with what parents wanted to teach their daughters about women predicted this book choice. Overall, although these books tended to reflect traditional gender stereotypes (Studies 1, 2), and people held these beliefs (Study 3), we found that parents wanted a counter-stereotypical book for their daughter. Implications for the transmission of gender stereotypes via children’s literature and parental choices are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Gender stereotypes; Gender norms; Children's books; Popular media; Sexism; Mr; Men and Little Miss; Content analysis; Parental attitudes |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Feb 2024 15:53 |
Last Modified: | 20 Feb 2024 15:53 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01409-2 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s11199-023-01409-2 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:207093 |