OBSERVING GENDER ROLES IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE Cassandra Vitacco; Stella Oh Ph.D.
2015 Caldecott Winners Show Gender Bias
Critical Discourse Analysis Aims to “understand how social inequalities are reflected and created in language” 1 Material Process, Behavioral Process, Relational Process, Verbal Process, Existential Process 1 Pennycook A. (2002) ‘Incommensurable discourses?’ In M. Toolan (ed.), Critical Discourse Analysis: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (Vol. 3). London: Routledge, pp qtd. Nair, Ramesh; Rosli, Talif. (2013), A critical reading of gender construction in Malaysian children’s literature: How linguistic structures convey deep-rooted gender messages for young children. English Today. 29(4). P Nair, Ramesh; Rosli, Talif. (2013), A critical reading of gender construction in Malaysian children’s literature: How linguistic structures convey deep- rooted gender messages for young children. English Today. 29(4). P
Top left: Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss (Random House); Top right: Boo and the Big Storm by Wendy Lawrence (Wild Publishing); Bottom: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row)
Question: How are female characters portrayed visually in picture books for preschool-age children?
Methods Develop a method of standardized visual analysis for children’s books Use that method in conjunction with CDA Produce a paper on my findings
References Auster, Carol J., and Claire S. Mansbach. "The Gender Marketing of Toys: An Analysis of Color and Type of Toy on the Disney Store Website." Sex Roles 67.7 (2012): n. pag. Web. Diekman, A. B., & Murnen, S. K. (2004). Learning to be little women and men: The inequitable gender equality of nonsexist children’s literature. Sex Roles, 50 ( ⅚ ), Dreger, Alice. “Shifting the Paradigm of Intersex Treatment.” ISNA.org. Intersex Society of North America, n.d. Web. 19 Nov Fausto-Sterling, Anne, David Crews, Jihyun Sung, Cynthia García-Coll, and Ronald Seifer. "Multimodal Sex- Related Differences in Infant and in Infant-Directed Maternal Behaviors During Months Three Through Twelve of Development." Developmental Psychology (2015): Fine, Cordelia. Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference. New York: W.W. Norton, Print. Nair, Ramesh; Rosli, Talif. “A critical reading of gender construction in Malaysian children’s literature: How linguistic structures convey deep-rooted gender messages for young children.” English Today. 29(4). (2013) P Quinn, Paul C., Lesley Uttley, Kang Lee, Alan Gibson, Michael Smith, and Alan M. Slater. "Infant Preference for Female Faces Occurs for Same–but Not Other–race Faces." Journal of Neuropsychology (2008): Web. "Welcome to the Caldecott Medal Home Page!" Welcome to the Caldecott Medal Home Page! N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct Willer, Lynda R. “Warning: Welcome To Your World, Baby, Gender Message Enclosed. An Analysis of Gender Messages in Birth Congratulation Cards.” Women and Language; 24(1) (2001) p.16.