He made such suggestion after he found that children’s literature has served as a powerful medium through which children construct messages about their roles in society, and gender identity. Although possessing mental schemas about gender differences is helpful when children organize their ideas of the world around them, problems occur when children are exposed to a constant barrage of uncompromising, gender-schematic sources that lead to stereotyping, which in turn represses the full development of the child.
Given the powerful influence of children’s literature, it comes as no surprise then that children’s literature has been widely researched for evidence of gender biasness and stereotyping over several decades. However, such studies have focused primarily on texts written and published in the West.
The renewed emphasis on the importance of mastering the English language in Malaysia has led to a significant rise in the number of children’s books that are being locally published (Desai, 2006). Besides the popular children’s stories from the West that have long been available at leading bookstores in Malaysia, local publishers have also begun introducing more Malaysian children’s stories in the English language. It is imperative that these local publications be measured for quality as they are an important tool for the transmission of knowledge. Considering the fact that young children are the consumers of these texts, the measurement of ‘quality children’s books’ must include a close scrutiny of gender construction (Dutro, 2002).
Ramesh Nair also explored the construction of gender in a selection of Malaysian children’s literature texts in the English language. The aim was to examine the subtle gender-based messages that these texts inherently contain.
While still relying on the content analytic method of liberal feminist researchers of the past, this study aimed to move beyond looking at just surface level features. Instead, the way in which the various characters were constructed linguistically and through visual language was also examined. It was for this reason that Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was adopted as an approach to reading gender construction in Malaysian children’s literature. CDA is an approach that looks at how power imbalances are played out through choices made in language use and other semiotic modes. Four methods of analysis were relied upon - content analysis, lexical analysis, transitivity analysis and visual analysis.
The findings of the content analysis revealed significant imbalances in the distribution of female and male social actors, both in the roles that they played and their appearances in the accompanying illustrations. In both cases, males outnumbered females. Practices of stereotyping were found in the distribution of the characters in the various settings. While the home setting appeared established as a feminised space, the workplace and outdoor settings were dominated by males. The content analysis also pointed towards stereotyping practices in the way female and male characters were ascribed behavioural traits and status in society. The association between gender and behavioural trait appeared to firmly establish power in the hands of the male characters. In the next stage of analysis that focused on both written and visual language, strong nuances of sexism were identified in apparently neutral texts, revealing a weaker construction of females. The analysis of lexical units and clauses revealed deeply embedded linguistic structures that positioned males as predominantly more powerful than the female characters. The visual analysis focused on the roles the female and male characters took on in the illustrations and it was again found that male characters were accorded the more important roles of active doer while females took on the role of passive observer.
Ramesh concluded that an analysis of language, grounded in a CDA approach, offers researchers and decision-makers in the selection of texts for children greater insights into the way gender is subtly constructed.
