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Children's literature in France commands a large market share: it accounts for almost twenty-one percent of all books published and represents fourteen percent of French publishers' revenue, not even counting schoolbooks (Syndicat 38). The production of French children's literature grew significantly in the 1970s as a result of democratization, whereby books for children were no longer the privilege of the upper classes. The first wave of scholarly attention to gender representations in children's literature also began in the 1970s in France and elsewhere,1 spurred by the second feminist wave,and led to a global UNESCO initiative to eliminate sexism from children's books and textbooks (Michel).
Sylvie Cromer summarizes the studies of gender in French children's literature conducted during the 1970s and '80s: "The results show universal evidence of minimization of female characters; bipolarization of qualities, activities, functions, etc., of each sex; a valuing of the masculine versus a devaluing of the feminine" ("De manière universelle, les résultats mettent en évidence: une minoration des personnages de sexe féminin, une bipolarisation des qualités, activités, fonctions, etc., selon les sexes, une valorisation du masculin versus une dévalorisation du féminin") (57).2 Cromer's studies of French children's books produced in the 1990s and 2000s, such as an examination co-authored with Carole Brugeilles and Isabelle Cromer, reveal that gender stereotyping had not disappeared but had only become more subtle. Because male characters remain numerically dominant (sixty percent of child characters and seventy percent of personified animal protagonists), their profiles are more diverse and developed than those of female characters. Male characters benefit from a greater variety of relationships and are also generally older than females, representing a double domination (282–85).
In addition to a decided underrepresentation of girls and women in titles, central roles, and images, study after study of gender in children's literature over the last four decades has shown that female characters tend to be nameless and that girls are often portrayed as passive and afraid. If they are shown doing anything at all, they are engaged in domestic activities. In contrast, boy characters tend to be adventurous and independent. Adult women are rarely shown as having a profession, whereas adult men are depicted pursuing a multitude of paid occupations. Fathers—that is, men engaging in family-oriented tasks—are nearly...