ABSTRACT

The persistent imbalance of gender representation in children‟s literature has become an issue. The stereotypes and worldview embedded in children‟s books have become accepted knowledge, and such deep-seated socialized thinking has created barriers that prevent authors from implementing their egalitarian beliefs. The study contends that a huge imbalance exist in the presentation of gender in children‟s literature and therefore investigates the proposition that: despite the positive attributes that typify children‟s literature in Nigeria, the literature is gender biased, gender stereotypes in children‟s literature in Nigeria enhance gender inequality by imparting notions that privilege masculinity and downgrade femininity, and that gender bias exist in content, language, and pictures in a number of children‟s literatures and reinforces the building and maintaining of biases towards the female genders. This study therefore, analyses imbalance in gender relations in selected children‟s books in Nigeria. In doing this, the study uses the following as basis for discourse: underrepresentation of the female in language, content and pictures leading to gender inequality, and the effect of stereotype on the choices children make. The study found out that children‟s literature in Nigeria is gender bias and displays imbalances in the representation of textual characters and as a result there exist the absence of dynamic and positive female characters in the literature produced for the younger ones.

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