A Qualitative Analysis of Gender Representation in Picture Books Selected by Bokjuryn in Sweden : year 2005

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine if there is any gender role stereotyping conveyed in recent children’s picture books. The picture books examined are the ten most popular which are selected by a combination of Bokjuryn in Sweden, 2005, and children voting. Furthermore there is a winner each year. The investigation concerns how protagonists, girls and boys, are portrayed and, moreover, if there are any breaches of traditional gender patterns. The method used consists of a qualitative text analysis and in order to be able to do this study a model of analysis is created. This model relates to gender researcher Lissa Pauls fourteen basic questions reduced to five fundamental categories and, to some extent, Gustaf Cavallius model for analyzing pictures. The five categories are the protagonist’s character traits, actions, relationship to surrounding individuals, the way she/he looks and in what settings we find the protagonists. In order to establish personal traits we use a schema consisting of a description of characters, traditionally associated with girls and boys. The result of the analysis reveals that gender role stereotyping still is common in the selected picture books. The male characters outnumber female, they are portrayed in a much more diverse way, are more in control of their life and engage more in adventurous activities further away from the home. These findings are consistent with Yvonne Hirdman’s, Ylva Elvin–Nowak’s and Heléne Thomsson’s theories about gender systems, male – female dichotomy, male domination and how we, as human beings, constantly are in the process of creating gender roles in our lives.Uppsatsnivå: