Throughout history and even in today’s world, girls have continued to face and feel discrimination, demotion, and stereotyping. Society has forever put girls inside a box. They have to do certain things and act a certain way.
Societal pressures and expectations convey that girls are “supposed” to care more about how they look, taking away any celebration for being smart. Though we have come a long way, girls still focus more on things like trends instead of reading, schoolwork, and intelligence.
Girl Empowerment
Furthermore, studies have shown that males have historically had lower reading rates than females. Boys and men choose not to read books by female authors or with female protagonists. Female authors have continuously had to mask their names so people would read their books and take them more seriously, with books like The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton), Marry Poppins (P.L. Travers), and the Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling).
We noticed a pattern in these studies – females were not being represented as much as their male counterparts, and we want to do everything we can to change that. With the help of parents, caregivers, and educators, we are aiming to show you that reading and learning should be fun, interesting, and equal.
So, we try to review and list books that center around female protagonists, or are written by female authors. With your help, we can help change the gender-based stereotypes associated with reading.
If you want to learn more about why girl empowerment is so important to reading and the media, here are three articles to get informed on this topic.
Image created by: cbsnews.com
