STÉRÉOTYPES ET REPRÉSENTATION. Étude comparative de l’égalité des sexes dans la littérature d’enfance et de jeunesse en Suède et en France

Abstract

This BA Thesis aims to investigate to what extent the current level of equality in society can be traced in children's literature, by comparing the situation in France and in Sweden. Sweden, having received a higher score in the yearly Global Equality Index, we hypothesize will cause gender stereotyping and masculine overrepresentation in Swedish children's books to be less prominent than in the French counterparts. Through a qualitative study of the description of 50 books per language, in total 100 books, we examine the description provided by their respective distributor (Amazon.fr and Adlibris.se). This examination is based on the research of gender stereotypes and gender representation identified from the Bem Sex-Role Inventory among others, which is then applied to the different book descriptions, as we determine whether or not it indicates stereotypical content, while also examining the gender of the characters. The hypothesis is only partly confirmed; we conclude that both the Swedish and French lists contained a majority of male leading characters, with female leads being a minority. The Swedish books contain more than double the amount of female leads. However, the French list of books contained fewer works with stereotypical gender roles, thus making the results bisected. Further studies need to be conducted to provide clearer results