How Far…or Not…Have We Come? Gender Portrayals in Award-Winning Children’s Picture Books: 2018–2022

Abstract

This quote from the end of the hallmark study Sex-Role Socialization in Picture Books for Preschool Children (1972) was an assertion of the power of stories on the lives of children and a call for different stories—ones with fair representation for women and the eradication of harmfully rigid gender stereotypes. More than fifty years have passed since the publication of this seminal work, and it is now widely acknowledged that “children’s books reflect cultural values and are an important instrument for persuading children to accept those values.”

Picture books are of particular concern because they are most popular with children who are in the initial stages of gender identity formation. According to researchers Gooden and Gooden, “Around age five, children start to model the behaviors of adults, becoming more independent and develop their identities.” As such, picture books play a key role in gender socialization. Gender itself is a social construct which has historically been depicted as a binary concept in the United States—differentiating what is feminine from what is masculine. However, there is increasing recognition that gender is more fluid and that gender nonconforming identities exist. Picture books are uniquely poised to reflect gender presentations in society because not only do they incorporate verbal textual clues, but also visual clues that indicate sex characteristics as well as clothing and other physical identifiers that are considered feminine or masculine. These multifaceted presentations of gender are potent for the reader, but have historically been rife with stereotypes and inequity.