Date

3-22-2024

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Joyce Brady

Keywords

gender, gender bias, bias, gender stereotype, stereotype, language, natural gender language, grammatical gender language, children's literature, language development, cognitive development, child development, psychology, developmental psychology, pronouns

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

There has been much research on the connection between language and gender bias but there is little comparing natural gender language, grammatical gender language, and gender bias. This research is important because it can offer an understanding of gender bias and how these biases are reinforced in different languages. The purpose of this study is to understand how gender biases are represented in children’s literature in different languages. The research questions how gender biases are found in both natural gender and grammatical gender languages within children’s literature. Then questions if there are any differences in these biases. This study compared gender biases within children’s literature in the natural gender language and the grammatical gender language. The study used the New York Public Library’s Best Books Lists for 2022 and 2021. For the natural gender language, it used English books from the lists. For grammatical gender languages it used Spanish. The study analyzed each book’s main character’s gender, target audience, and whether they are enforcing gender stereotypes. The results revealed that there are more similarities than differences in gender bias within natural gender language and grammatical gender language.

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