Gender Bias in Newbery Medal and Honor Books

2.3 Gender Issues in Award-Winning Adolescent Novels

Award winning books in children’s literature carried values selected and transmitted by main streams in the society to younger generation. Therefore, it was important to review gender issues represented in award winning books. The following sections reviewed related literature concerning with gender bias in Newbery medal and honor books and the heroine in Newbery Medal winners.

2.3.1 Gender Bias in Newbery Medal and Honor Books

Award winning children’s literature was often widely published and accepted partly due to the recognition from the award. But did the award imply that the book

was free of bias? The following section presented research on evaluating gender bias for award-winning books.

Phelps (1985) examined Newbery award-winning books in the first and last decade before the research, specifically 1922-31 and 1976-85. Content analysis was used to analyze the books for the changes that are reflected in the content of the books in terms of sex role identification of the protagonist, diverse ethnic oriented content, problems of the main character and the social values of family life, importance of education, initiative and loyalty. Phelps concluded that the first and last decade of the award were diverse in regards to the sex role identification of the protagonist, ethnic group representation and problems of the main character. The female was represented sparsely in the first decade but portrayed more often in the last decade. As for male characters, traditional male (brave and adventurous) was stereotyped in the first decade while being more diverse in the last decade. There were various ethnic groups represented in the first decade but mostly White Americans in the last decade. The problems of the protagonists in the first decade were of man or animal vs. nature; man or animal vs. animal. In the last decade the problems of the protagonists were man vs.

man or man vs. self.

Kinman and Henderson (1985) reviewed Newbery medal award books from 1977-1984 for portrayals of females. They had reviewed previous studies analyzing Newbery books and had discovered that previous researchers had discovered gender-biased storylines and illustrations in their review. In this research, they were seeking a reversal of the sexist trend in writing and publishing because “children must see lifestyles like their own in the literature they read, since this is one way that they validate their own lifestyles” (p.885). Their analysis found that the time period sampled was less stereotypical when compared to earlier studies. A previous study done in 1971 reviewed the previous forty-nine Newbery winners form 1922-1971 and

determined that males outnumbered females as protagonists in a 3:1 ratio. Kinman and Henderson, after reviewing the Newbery books from 1977-1984, discovered an increasing of female protagonists in that sample by a 3:2 ratio. Their research showed that Newbery Medal books had reflected the changing norms of society during the past two decades. Specifically in the increased number of books with women as main characters, positive images of females, and situations similar to those encountered in everyday life.

Roberts (1987) conducted another study using the Newbery Medal and Honor books. She examined how male and female protagonists overcame their conflicts based on a locus of control framework. The sample included 120 male and female protagonists from Newbery books starting from 1922 to 1986. The overall results revealed that females exhibited more instances of internal locus of control (i.e.

attempting to reorganize thoughts in order to perceive conflict as less daunting or even dissolved) while male main characters exhibited more instances of external locus of control (i.e. the rescuer role in solving the conflict). Roberts explained this was why male protagonists overwhelmingly being assigned the role of the rescuer in numerous categories. She went further to explain that in these books, the females often resolved a conflict by simply ceasing to perceive the conflict as a problem. The males commonly aided the female protagonists when solving the conflict, on the contrary, the females rarely helped the male protagonists solve a conflict. This suggested that females were incapable of conflict resolution without male intervention, which further implied a stereotypical slant within the sampled books. Also, this study revealed that in the last 15 years, a new trend may be seen as the quantities of male and female protagonists in fictional Newbery Medal and Honor books approached an equal number.

Powell, Gillespie, Swearingen, and Clements (1998) reviewed the history of gender roles of Newbery medal books from 1922-1997. They examined both male and female roles in Newbery winners because they felt that sex role identities could be transferred to readers from authors. They stated that “If young males rarely experience another male displaying emotion, or young females rarely encounter a female overcoming fears, they may believe that these behaviors are not a part of who they are or can become” (p.42). Characters in all books were reviewed to see if they were portrayed as traditional or progressive. For males, being independent, assertive, self-reliant, and emotionally stable meant being traditional while female should be dependent, passive, nurturing, and physically weak. Males were progressive if they were presented as caretaker of children, involved in domestic duties at home, and unafraid of showing emotion, and females would be categorized as being so by working outside the home, especially in male-dominated occupations, possessing strong, brave or independent characteristics, and being actively involved in the story.

The results of the study were revealed by each decade (1923-1929, 1930-1939, 1940- 1949, etc.). As each decade was analyzed, they found a gradual and uneven separation from the more biased award winning books of the 1920-1940 time period. The authors described the last seventeen years of the study (1980-1997) as improved in terms of female portrayal of characters. The authors noted that more strong and courageous female characters have been introduced in the sample during this time period.

Kimmel (1990) conducted a survey of the Newbery Medal books from 1970 to 1990. All books were examined of sexual and racial stereotyping of role models.

Kimmel employed the method of content analysis to survey these books from the following perspectives: the numbers of characters of each sex and ethnic groups, the types of occupations depicted in the storyline, the descriptions of different ethnic groups, and the behavior and capabilities presented for each type of character. The

findings revealed that these books were highly stereotyped in both sexual and racial presentations. Kimmel finally suggested that people who write, publish, and select children's literature must monitor those materials closely in order to encourage the elimination of such stereotyping in the future.

Agee (1993) reviewed the processes of gender-role socialization between mothers and daughters in two Newbery Award books: Caddie Woodlawn by Ryrie Brink and Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson. She found that although the novels were written by women, the female protagonists were forced to leave their adventurous and exciting childhood and enter a more traditional role akin to their mothers as they made the transition into adolescence. Though both main characters appeared to be active and boy-like at their early ages, as they began to reach adolescence, their mothers started to shift the thinking of the daughters toward a more culturally accepted traditional view.

Moorcroft (1992) focused the study on the portrayal of girls/women characters in Newbery Medal award winning books from 1950 to 1990. In this study, the following questions were reviewed: 1) how are girls/women portrayed in Newbery Medal award winning books since 1950? 2) how has the portrayal of girls/women changed during this time? And 3) are the current guidelines set out by the Ontario Ministry of Education document Circular 14 adequate in terms of detecting gender bias? The Circular 14 document is the guideline being used currently in the States to determine whether books are considered to be biased. The result showed that bias was often subtle yet pervasive, and this finding held true even in recent Newbery Award winners. Unlike researchers who contend that gender bias had diminished in recent years, Moorcoft claimed that no such trend was found.

Iwamoto (1996) reviewed 168 books of award-winning children’s literature from 1983 through 1995. Books selected in this dissertation included 58 Randolph

Caldecott Medal winners (1938-1995), 58 John Newbery winner (1938-1995), and 52 Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award winners (1940-1995). After examining the portrayal of ethnicity, gender, ages, character roles and themes in these books, she concluded that stereotypes had been evident in all the time periods examined. An overrepresentation of males was apparent and the roles in award-winning books did not correspond to the demographic characteristics of American population in reality.

Hearn (1997) discussed the male figure carved on back of Newbery Medal and questioned whether this image was sexist and should be changed. The Medal, designed by Rene Paul Chabellan, was intended to present the image of a great writer who is the “genius giving of its bet to the child,” (p.39) and this image was displayed as a male figure. Though it seemed that female writers were more advantageous in the Newbery competition than male writers after the 1930s, no one even noticed about the illustration on the medal saying about gender. She called for an attention to reconsider the look of the field’s highest honor.

Lautenbach (2004) reviewed seventeen representative Newbery award-winning books to see what features leadership in adolescent novel. Fictional stories with adolescent protagonists in realistic situations were chosen. Content analysis was used to quantify and analyze the leadership themes; a code book was used to organize data.

Occurrence of each sub-category was ranked for prevalence within each book. The findings showed that females were less likely to be portrayed as leaders because of their physical characteristics and males were less likely than females to value followers' personal growth. Lautenbach concluded that adolescent leaders in Newbery was emotionally connected and relied on peers and role models when developing the qualities of leadership.

The above literature review showed that gender bias appeared not only at the identification of the author but thoroughly at the very beginning when the Medal was designed (Hearn, 1997). It was also revealed that there was a gradual shift from a great disparity in gender representation in the early years of the award to a more recent equitable period in Newbery books (Kinman & Henderson, 1985; Phelps, 1985;

Roberts, 1987). Female characters, from earlier portrayals that featured predictable and dependent women, had been evolved in recent years to more creative and courageous in solving their own problems. However, even award winners could not be free from containing biased messages and some research showed that male were still over-represented in award-winning books (Iwamoto, 1996; Moorcroft, 1992).

Other studies had gone beyond number counting of male versus female characters to analyze deeper issues regarding gender portrayal in the Newbery books.

Some discovered that females were more likely to require male assistance to solve the conflict, while their male counterparts were more apt to solve problems without the assistance of others (Lautenbach, 2004; Roberts, 1987). Sometimes the independent and adventurous female characters were enforced by their mothers into more traditional social roles at the conclusion of their childhood (Agee, 1993). But some insisted that female main characters from the past few decades were portrayed as more independent, courageous, and intelligent than earlier heroines in this population (Powell, Gillespie, Swearingen, & Clements, 1998).

In short, most research in Newbery books showed a change of gender role in character portrayals. The change was not displayed only from the numbers of male vs.

female characters, but also represented from the way writers illustrated each gender.

Gender bias did exist in early Newbery winning books but it was not so obvious in recent years. Female characters tended to be more independent and intelligent then before.