Gender in Books

As I was reading the article "The Gendered Classroom" by M.S Kimmel for my Communications class I stumbled upon some shocking information that I thought would be interesting to share. We are talking about how many cultures are underrepresented in literature but years ago there was another issue that existed with books. Until recently, can anyone guess who were the primary characters among books? Another image that we have seemed to bypass is the roles of characters in the books, primarily the roles of the males and females.

Take from the article, here are some facts that may leave you dumbfounded from a study done in 1975 from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. 134 text were looked at by "sixteen different publishers, looking at the pictures, stories, and language used to describe male and female characters". The results were

• "Boy-centered" stories outnumbered "girl-centered" stories by a five to two ration
• 3 times as many adult male characters
• 6 times as many biographies about men
• 4 times as many male fairy tales

Although things have changed today in literature and women and girls are seen more as the main character than in the past but "gender stereotypes still prevail: girls are still depicted as more interested in domestic life than boys are". Even though female characters roles in stories have changed, there has been no significant change in the role of males becoming more domestic, nurturing or caring.

After reading this article I seem to have a better eye when reading and looking over literature. I am interested in the main characters and the roles of males and females and I believe this is another issue that should be represented fairly in the classroom. Girls should have the chance to relate with the main character and not just because they are doing domestic or stereotypical "girly" things. While reading Project Mulberry it was brought to my attention that while working on the project that the roles are split in a peculiar way. Julia is in charge of the sewing and entering her work in the Domestic Arts/Needlework category while Patrick was in charge of the book work and research end of the Ecotherm Farming or before it was changed Animal Husbandry project. Julia also took on the nurturing role and cared for the worms while Patrick had nothing to do with because of his phobia. Do you believe this as anything to do with the stereotypical roles that have been attributed to males and females over time?

Personal Philosophy

TE 448 has opened my eyes to the lack of diversity I experienced in my own elementary education. As much as I enjoy children’s and adolescent literature I had not realized the absence and misrepresentations of different cultures that I was or was not reading about. This class has made me realized the importance of finding quality and accurate literature to share with my students. It has opened my eyes to how much multicultural literature is out there and how important it is to look at it from every perspective and culture that is portrayed in the text. I want to be able to choose literature that will benefit my students learning about their culture as well as others. I want them to feel comfortable reading and discussing these books in the classroom and I also would like to counter act many of the stereotypes that they may have or will be influenced by in the outside world.

The issues of diversity play a very important role in literacy teaching and learning. Not only do I have to know and understand where I stand and where I may have biases to set aside, I have to be able to teach my students how to respect the ideas and ways of other cultures that they may not know about or agree with. Growing up, my religion has set myself aside from many of my classmates and I loved to learn about their traditions and values as well as share mine. I thought it was important for them to know where I came from and vise versa. I also have to be able to recognize and pull out quality literature that will represent cultures appropriately and respectively. I think it is imperative to children’s learning that they are engaged in a multicultural education. Students should feel comfortable in a classroom environment that displays a variety of cultures and ways of life. Students should have an equal opportunity to learn and grow within the classroom and I believe I am responsible for adhering to this environment. Children’s lit fits into this multicultural classroom because it is one tool that can engage students in learning about different cultures and open them to new ideas. A wide variety of literature needs to be displayed to make the students feel comfortable in the classroom. Each student needs to be able to relate too and be represented by more than a handful of books. There also needs to be an abundance of books that are not represented in the classroom so students can be introduced what else is outside of the classroom, community and city, state, and country.

Thinking about bringing my philosophy into the classroom is a lot easier than actually implementing it. I worry about my ability to accurately portray many cultures through literature because as we have discussed, there are many different opinions on who should write and what should count as quality multicultural literature. I want my students to feel comfortable in the classroom and I do not want to misrepresent one of them accidentally. This will also be a challenge for me to find books that make a collection that I think will help foster individual growth with all students. I look forward to exploring books in libraries as well as in my cooperative teachers classrooms that I think are beneficial to students learning and I could include in my own library. Now that I am involved in this class, I believe I have a better idea of what I need to include and what is underrepresented that I need to represent. My elementary career definitely lacked a representation of many of the cultures we are reading about and I look forward to learning and growing myself with respect to the many cultures that need to be presented in the classroom. It will be an exciting experience and challenge for me and I look forward to creating a collection of multicultural literature!