Children's Books and Media Influence

Mardiya Siba Yahaya discusses the importance of incorporating feminist thought into children’s education to prevent destructive gender ideals from further spreading through society. Yahaya reflects on her own childhood in Ghana where she only saw girls being represented as powerless housewives who lacked education and drive. She comments on when she realized the effect of these limited representations of women when she was planning her own career and faced lash back of pursuing certain life goals because of her gender. In class, we discuss how TV cultivates people by teaching standards, social mores, and expectancies. Subsequently, children’s book also holds great power by cultivating younger audiences on what is expected of them based on their gender. Yahaya discusses the power of cultivation when she explains how children learn information through media and games that can spread problematic ideologies. To intervene with the spread of harmful gender ideologies through media to children, the subject matter that is being taught needs to shift by incorporating more feminist ideals and gender equality ideologies.