Just 5 per cent of nursery books feature characters in non-stereotypical gender roles

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.

Overall, just 14 per cent of them passed the gender and diversity audit.

Zero Tolerance worked with nurseries over six months with funding from STV Children’s Appeal to examine whether their books could be teaching harmful gender stereotypes to young children.

One nursery manager said, ‘We expected the numbers to be poor, but it was actually awful! This has certainly been an eye-opening experience. We will definitely try to rectify this and be very mindful in future of the books we purchase.’

Rachel Adamson, co-director of Zero Tolerance, said, ‘Children learn by example, and look for characters that resemble themselves. By only telling children stories in which male characters are brave and adventurous and female characters are damsels in distress or pretty princesses, we limit children’s ideas of what they can be and what they can achieve.’

The book audit is part of Zero Tolerance’s ‘You Can Be’ campaign which raises awareness of the harm of gender stereotypes and offers parents, carers and childcare professionals tips and ideas on how to tackle them.

The project was delivered in partnership with Fife Violence Against Women Partnership with support from STV Children’s Appeal funding.

Zero Tolerance is now inviting more nurseries to take part in its audit by visiting their website.