Picture books from a gender perspective

The purpose of this study is to analyze picture books from a gender perspective. The books are found in a book box that the libraries send out to preschools. This study is based on the following questions: How are boys and girls portrayed in picture books? Do the picture books encourage or discourage the principles of equality found in the Curriculum for the Pre-School and the equality work conducted in the preschools? I performed a qualitative text and picture analysis of 12 picture books. I used Maria Nikolajeva and Kajsa Wahlströms schedule of typical masculine and feminine qualities and activities when analysing the picture books. I reached the conclusion that in the vast majority of the books boys and girls are portrayed with qualities that are both typical masculine and feminine. Only a few books in the book box portray the boys and girls characters in a stereotype manner. Hence, as a conclusion, the analyzed picture books discourage the traditional stereotype gender patterns and therefore encourage the principles of equality as described in the Curriculum for the Pres-School