Last 60 years of children's books reveal 'persistent overrepresentation' of male protagonists: study
CTV
An analysis of thousands of children's books published in the last 60 years suggests that male protagonists remain overrepresented, despite a higher portion of books now featuring female leads.
To see whether gender bias still exists in American children's literature, researchers out of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. conducted a statistical analysis comparing the number of male protagonists to female ones in 3,280 books.
According to the report, these books were aimed for audiences between the ages of zero and 16, and were published between 1960 and 2020. The majority of these books were published in the year 2000 or later (2,638).
The analysis found that, since 1960, the proportion of female central characters has increased, and continues to increase. However, the authors report that books published since 2000 still feature a "disproportionate number" of male protagonists.
The findings were published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
