An article by The Guardian stated that research found parents/guardians reading storybooks to their children referred to gender-neutral characters with the pronoun that of a male — he/his. Statistics also found that characters that were non-humans, those of birds, vegetables, cars, etc., which are supposed to be considered gender-neutral, were 73% of the time referred to as the male characters. Several authors also said in The Guardian, “The messages conveyed through representation of males and females in books contribute to children’s ideas of what it means to be a boy, girl, man, or woman. The disparities we find point to the symbolic annihilation of women and girls, and particularly female animals, in 20th-century children’s literature, suggesting to children that these characters are less important than their male counterparts. The disproportionate numbers of males in central roles may encourage children to accept the invisibility of women and girls and to believe they are less important than men and boys, thereby reinforcing the gender system.”

Research also observed how children tend to play with toys that most of the time are associated stereotypically with the sex they are assigned at birth. Similar behavior was also observed with the fictional characters that represented popularly in the books. There have been large amounts of evidence regarding behavior and the books or toys that children play with or associate their gender identity with. Gender Atypical storybooks — are stories of the individuals playing or doing something that the opposite sex is not stereotypically associated with. These stories can be from a girl playing with trucks to a boy with dolls. A study conducted on children aged 2 to 5 years resulted in increased behavior with children playing with toys that are stereotypically associated with the opposite sex.

To support the above research, it’s important to understand the necessity of the discussion through two theories, the gender schema theory (Bem, 1983; Martin & Halverson, 1981) and social cognitive theory (Bussy & Bandura, 1992). Research stated that the gender schema theory is when the child at an early age starts understanding gender as a concept. These sensitive concepts are misguided and misunderstood with the sex assigned and hence it’s important the right guidance through influential factors like poems, books, and television. The social cognitive theory delves into when these gender classifications are assigned or understood in relationship with the social beings or the society the child lives in.