Children’s book heroes mostly male

MALE characters dominate the most popular picture books for children, it was revealed yesterday, prompting warnings over sexism.

They outnumber their female counterparts and are more likely to be the hero – or villain – according to analysis of last year’s 100 bestsellers.

The findings sparked calls from writers and campaigners for more strong female characters, amid fears the current pattern sends a negative message to girls.

Researchers found male characters were twice as likely to take leading roles or any speaking roles, and that a fifth of the books had no female characters.

Last year’s top title, The Detective Dog by Julia Donaldson, bucked the trend with a plucky female dog as its main character. Only one book, Peppa and her Golden Boots, featured a female villain acting alone.

Overall, female characters were more likely to be sidekicks or mothers. In books featuring a parent, 33 were mothers and only 19 were fathers, according to the analysis by Nielsen for The Observer. Children’s laureate Lauren Child told the newspaper: ‘It gives out a message about how society sees you. If boys get the starring roles … and girls are the sidekicks … it’s very hard to feel equal then.’

Jess Day, of the Let Toys Be Toys campaign against gender stereotypes, said the bias towards featuring mothers but not fathers ‘reflects a skewed version of the world which is bad for boys as well as girls – the lack of fathers, for instance, steers them away from an interest in nurturing and caring behaviour’.