ABSTRACT
In 1969 and 1970, groups of feminists in New Jersey and New York surveyed children's literature and reported that a dismal portrayal of females, from childhood to old age, was found in children's books and texts. Research has shown that when male generic language is used, students produce images that are overwhelmingly male. Women continued to be underrepresented, and those that were shown seemed to be engaged in the same household tasks as always. In a review of Caldecott Medal winners from 1976 to 1980, the author concluded that the books showed "an abundance of traditional stereotypes" and "male dominance". The new anthologies for the elementary classroom provide teachers with supplements to their stereotyped reading texts. In the 1970s, feminist literary criticism concentrated on the exposure of stereotyping, the search for forgotten women writers, and proof that women had always been discontented.
