An Analysis of the Portrayal of Work in Children's Literature

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine occupations, career ambitions, and work conflicts of characters in books selected and read by children themselves. The Children's Choices books were a body of literature selected by children and supported the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Children's Book Council (CBC). An annotated bibliography of the 29 analyzed books from the years 2001 and 2002 for Advanced Readers (age 10 to age {3) was included. In order to evaluate each book, an occupation checklist was developed to determine the occupations and career ambitions of characters in books. The checklist was used to identify the characters, the work rewards, and the work conflicts associated with each occupation or career ambition. Final results indicated that the majority of occupations and career ambitions were ananged in the area of professional and technical occupations. These results support the need for authors to portray more characters in occupations depicting construction, production, and service. Men were depicted more often in business and financial operations, computers and mathematical, architecture and engineering, and life and physical science than were women. These results further support the need to represent women in professions involving math, science, computers, electrical work, and construction.