The masculine and feminine for children : Gender in Swedish picture books from the 1980s and 2000s

The aim with this masters thesis is to investigate how gender is presented in Swedish picture books, in order to give librarians and other actors in the field knowledge about what kind of books they supply impressionable children with. I investigate if and how the changes concerning gender-equality in the Swedish society during the last 25 years are reflected in childrens literature, and compare how men and women are portrayed in four books from the early 1980s with four books from the 2000s. My study is delimited to three aspects of character formation, introduced by Maria Nikolajeva: description of psychology, actions and relations to other characters. It is carried through by consultation of Yvonne Hirdmans theory of how men and women are held apart and that the man in this relation constitutes the norm as well as Nikolajevas list of typical male and female characteristics. By reading and interpreting the chosen books, I analyse both text and pictures. The results indicate that the changes concerning gender-equality in the society are indeed reflected in the analysed books. There have been advancements made towards an increased equality, but there are still a lot to be made until equality is complete in these depictions. Among the changes I can mention that women today are ascribed more power than in the 1980s and that the presence of female characters has been largely increased. Among the aspects still to be changed, the stereotypical descriptions of supporting characters are a prominent one.Uppsatsnivå: