Gender Roles in Children's Books

Upon reading the title "Gender stereotypes plague children's picture books" I thought I would learn how picture books are destroying the world's youth through outdated portrayals of mothers and fathers in the home. After researching the topic of gender roles in children's books from 1900 to 2000, sociologist Amy Dewitt concluded that "children's books embrace tradition." Dewitt's research found that typical gender roles in the home have not changed significantly in children's books. Mothers are still portrayed as the nurturing homemakers while fathers act as the disciplinary parent and the breadwinner. The team did find, however, that “fathers in books published in 2000 exhibited increased care-giving and nurturing from previous time periods, and mothers exhibited increased work outside of the home.” The team did not find this to be significant "because similar performance peaks occurred in the 1970s depictions, only to drop in subsequent periods.” I am not an accredited sociologist, just a college freshman, but I do find this statistic to be significant. One of my thoughts is that perhaps people's ideas and values have changed over time. Gender roles were questioned in the 70s which accounts for the changes in the books at the time. Issues that bring about change to long established values are not accepted overnight. It can take years maybe even decades. The African American Civil Rights Movement started in1954 only to end in 1968. Even though the initial introduction of the issue did not take hold does not mean we should ignore current statistics. My second thought, a bit more controversial, is that depictions of typical mothers and fathers haven't changed significantly for a reason. Maybe mothers are naturally more nurturing than fathers and the men of the house are more emotionally distant. The team wrote: "Consistently seeing mothers in the nurturing and care-giving roles and fathers fulfilling the provider role may impress upon children what role performances are ultimately expected of them as men and women." I do not believe that a child's understanding of what it means to be a male or a female is shaped by a book they read. Rather, it comes down to what they experience their own parents doing and what goes on in their home. More importantly than being male and female is being human. And if a child is raised in a home by quality, caring parents, his or her aspirations and independence will not be muted.