Reading, a gender issue? : A qualitative study of how gender affects fifth-graders’ choice of fiction books

The aim of this study is to find out whether gender affects some fifth-graders’ choice of books. The study builds on qualitative research interviews with questions about children’s choice of fiction. It is based on gender theories because we wanted to see whether the pupils’ choice of books follows gender stereotypes. By gender stereotypes we mean all the notions and ideals about femininity and masculinities with which we are surrounded in today’s society, for example, in popular culture. We have interviewed six pupils in grade five, in three pairs. One of the pairs consisted of a girl and a boy, one consisted of two girls and one of two boys. The result of the study shows that the boys preferred to read books that were exciting and entertaining, while the girls chose books about topics such as friendship and love. The pupils in the all-boy group gave relatively similar answers during the interviews, as did the pupils in the all-girl group. The boys liked the same type of books and agreed with each other. It was the same in the girls’ group. The group with one girl and one boy differed, however, in that the girl preferred to read exciting books which the all-girl group did not choose. The group composition may have affected the pupils’ choice of books and the choice of genre. It is difficult, however, to draw any general conclusions about this, as only six pupils were interviewed.