Twenty-one nurseries across Scotland audited more than 3,000 nursery books on whether they reinforce harmful gender stereotyping, as part of Zero Tolerance’s You Can Be campaign, which aims to bring more gender balance into children's libraries.
To pass the audit, the majority of books in a setting’s library needed to avoid gender stereotypes and promote diversity.
Nursery staff used Zero Tolerance’s Book Audit Guide to examine their books and found only 5 per cent featured characters in non-stereotypical gender roles, such as mum going out to work and dad looking after children.
They also looked for books with characters of different races, religions and cultures. Just 8 per cent of the books featured characters from diverse backgrounds, with 1 per cent of the books featuring a significant disabled character.
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