Gender in Children’s and Young Adult Fiction.

Strong Female Character

Over recent years we have heard the phrase ‘strong female character’ repeated many times.

From books to television to movies the trend in creating this archetype seems to be everywhere.

But what does it actually mean and is the term endearing or damaging?

We can define the strong female character as the opposite of the damsel in distress.

(Slides: strong female characters)

In the first half of the 20th century, the rise of mainstream feminism and the increased use of the term

Dr. Lisa Blower, 44, a lecturer in Creative Writing at Bangor University, however, sees it as little more than a ‘branding.’

‘I’m very anti-label when it comes to things like that because I think the labels do it a disservice,’ she said.

‘As soon as you say the words strong female character you are already genderizing the role […] The gender battle and feminism is to have equality where that gender is more fluid.’

The Statistics

Recent research from BookHorn have determined that roughly 60% of YA lit aimed at 12-18 year old have female protagonists.

The same research from BookHorn also determined that in the 9-12 range only 36% of books center on female characters.

A pie chart of male/ female main characters for nine to twelve year olds:

A pie chart of male/ female main characters for twelve to eighteen year olds:

The large increase in the number of female lead stories may have something to do with the emergence of the strong female character.

Children’s Books:

From the statistics above it is clear that the strong female character is not the only gender issue faced in books today.

For every number of books with a female protagonist you find for your child in a bookstore, twice as many with a boy main character exist.

‘As much as we all love Harry Potter it’s got a lot to answer for, for sidelining the females.’ Blowers said.

Other best-selling children’s books with female protagonists also include:

·        ‘The Wolf Wilder’ by Katherine Rundell.

·        The ‘Circle of Magic’ series by Tamora Pierce.

·        ‘The Other Side of Truth’ by Beverly Naidoo.

·        ‘Howls Moving Castle’ by Diana Wynne Jones.

·        ‘Siren Sisters’ by Dana Langer.

·        The ‘Tracy Beaker’ books by Jacqueline Wilson.

So, why is this the case?  Is it because of the gender stereotypes of the past?

Blower says not, ‘there have been females present in Children’s fiction over the years but they’ve either been the tom-boy sidekick or they are the Wendy to Peter in Peter-Pan,’

Women are not absent from children’s literature, but they are very rarely the main characters.

That is until recently. Blower said, ‘we’ve had the Lyra’s, the Ruby’s, Phillip Pullman did a lot for female protagonists, to bring her forward so that she could have the adventures.’

Phillip Pullman’s hit book series ‘His Dark Materials’ has a female main character, Lyra.

(Image: The Golden Compass movie poster)

The Observer cites the first book in that series as one of the 100 best novels of all time.

It wasn’t so much about her gender.’ Blower said it’s just that she was also a part of that story and also could carry that story.’

We can see a push for more female main characters in children’s literature or as Blower says, ‘Publishers are now trying to address that rebalance.’

Young Adult (YA) Books

So if there is a gender issue in children's literature because of the uneven gender of the protagonists, could the same be said for young adult literature, where the genders are reversed?

Blower, ‘It’s not so much the gender issue, it’s also race. We need a much more multi-cultural perspective but also in terms of social class as well.’

‘Although it is great to see representation for women in books aimed at a younger audience, we mustn’t forget other minorities as well.’

You can listen to my full interview with Dr. Lisa Blower, a specialist in children’s literature here:

(interview with Dr. Lisa Blower)

Indeed, as much as this article has focused on gender specifically, there is no denying the majority of all book protagonists are white, as are the authors.

It seems as if there is a call for more labels, strong black female character, for instance instead of just strong female character.

Feminists, themselves, however, disagree on whether or not this term is helpful or condescending.

Feminist Emily Zemler said, ‘From Buffy Summers to Sydney Bristow, the small screen has given us some of the best female characters of all time.’

She argues that the label is good for women just because they remind women that they can stand up for themselves.

Whereas, in an interview for his t.v series Collateral, David Hare said ‘I’m sick to death of hearing about the need for strong women as protagonists. It’s a boring cause.’

(Image: Wonder Woman CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Most arguments on this side express the feeling that the term does more harm than good because they are often unflawed and unrealistic.

By creating characters without weakness, even for the sake of feminism, leaves readers with unrealistic goals for themselves.

It also detracts from the story as these characters cannot develop as they are already perfect.

The Takeaway

Whether or not the idea of the strong female character is helpful or not seems to continue to be a hot topic for debate among book and movie lovers alike.

Blower says she hopes to see a future of ‘authors really exploring the notion of a young female and how to represent that to other young female readers in order to encourage them to write about their own experiences.’

We can already see this happening. For example, Melvin Burgess has recently released a new book, ‘The Lost Witch,’ which not only tackles this issues but also deals with transgender representation.

Whatever the future holds for YA, it is clear that the strong female character is here to stay, for better or for worse.

Matthew Gurteen