Abstract
This study provides an update on gender bias found in teacher selected read aloud choices. The study focused on the following questions: What is the percentage of male and female protagonists in the top ten most frequently read aloud children’s books by pre-school, kindergarten, first and second grade teachers? Which gender is portrayed more frequently in stereotypical roles and settings within the selected books? This study included pre-school, kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers. Convenience sampling and the snowball method were used to obtain participants. There were a total of 33 participants including public and private school teachers. Quantitative methods were used to tally data from the surveys and count characters represented in the books. The researcher completed a qualitative content analysis using the top ten read aloud children’s literature choices by participating teachers. The study indicates that gender bias can still be found in teacher selected read aloud choices. There were no female protagonists in the top ten read aloud list. Males dominated the nouns in the text with 43.97% compared to 18.10% for females. Males were also seen in 54.75% of the illustrations compared to 16.14% for females. Females were only on the cover of the children’s book if a male was also shown. Male characters showed mostly active personality traits with few passive traits. However, females held only passive traits and showed no trace of active personalities. The researcher assumes the participating teachers did not receive gender equity training as there was a profound amount of gender bias portrayed in the top ten read aloud choices.