Cristen Tilley for ABC News writes:
We read Nielsen BookScan’s 100 top-selling kids’ picture books of last year, keeping track of gender: who spoke, who was the lead character, what type of character were they?
The results suggest — at least when it comes to the books that are being bought in large numbers — this crucial cultural starting point for many kids is still male-dominated.
- Three male characters for every two females
- More than two thirds of lead characters were male
- 55 books were written by men, 27 by women
- Male authors were much more likely to leave out female characters
Newer books were actually more likely than older books to feature more male characters than female.
Ms Stager said prejudice means, even these days, many female authors continue to use their initials.