Unexpected cultural echoes: gender representation in Hebrew and Arabic children’s picture books

This study examines gender representation in Hebrew- and Arabic-language picture books distributed by Israel’s two national programs: Sifriyat Pijama (PJ) and Maktabat Al-Fanoos (AF). Although bias in children’s literature is well documented, cross-community comparisons within a country are rare. We analyzed 433 books (PJ = 263; AF = 170), coding the gender of titular and central characters and distinguishing human vs. animal and adult vs. child roles. Male characters were overrepresented overall, with the largest gaps for animal figures. Contrary to expectations, disparities were greater in PJ: adult characters showed a 5.9:1 male–female ratio, whereas AF displayed greater balance–especially among human characters and in books originally written in Arabic. Across both programs, books by women authors showed smaller male skews than those by men, yet male characters remained predominant. We suggest that PJ reflects tensions between egalitarian ideals and traditional Jewish values, while AF may reflect feminist-oriented developments within a socially conservative setting. These findings illustrate how language-specific distribution programs can both mirror and shape ideological positions on gender in early childhood literature.