The study was carried out by the Eguzkitza School of Early Childhood and Primary Education (2 to 12 year old students). In this public school of 21 classrooms, 973 books of the library’s over 4,000 have been analyzed from a gender perspective. In addition to research, the Paralela Association has produced a series of storytelling tips, a precious educational treasure that arouses imagination and curiosity. In the opinion of the Association, the conclusions drawn reflect the reality that can be found in other schools, but they also make a note: “The Sun has a powerful co-education plan, nothing goes into the library, and that’s why we suspect that in many centers the picture is probably worse.”

The authors of the stories studied are mainly men, the protagonists are more than girls, the stories often reproduce sexist stereotypes… The authors of the research predicted such an effect, and yet, Oihana Llorente Arretxea, a member of Paranea, has confessed that some data have surprised us to see how women are represented (no) in the working world. Only in 13% of the stories studied do women appear in a different role to care, and when they have appeared working, in most cases, only at work as teachers or merchants. In other words, women are not reflected and appear as workers, but are working in very feminized professions. “You don’t see women lawyers or mayors – Llorente complains. Many times we say that girls can be astronauts and we have to put benchmarks of this kind on the table, but we are a long way from that, imagine that our daughters don’t see that women are in the labor world!”

And in what role do we see women? Well, caregiver. Care rarely plays a role in stories, but when it appears it is the responsibility of women, who in 95% of stories are women who are dedicated to custody. “There are many women who in stories only see the mother or grandmother on paper.”

Not working women, witches and women in the
labor world only, but that is true, many women are represented in the role of witches to reflect certain prejudices: “In addition to ugly and cowardly, they are models of evil,” says the research. The label Sorgina has been used to stigmatize women who break with the rules of femininity, and unfortunately in the literature children and youth we see that it is still a stigma in force”. The members of Parean believe that the tyranecdote that witch tales have should be used to offer a different image of witches.

Shared prominence, stereotyped models and romantic love Research
has left many consequences. Regarding the protagonists of the story, for example, the results are significant: in most cases the protagonist is the boy or the man (in 62% of the stories), and when the protagonist is shared by a couple or group, those who take the initiative and those who are the most enterprising are usually the boys. And a very significant fact: in many of the stories in which girls are protagonists, they are protagonists as a group, that is, they share the protagonism in the group, which does not occur with the boys protagonists. For example, Gerónimo is the protagonist of the famous Geronimo Stilton collection, but in the Tea Stilton collection the protagonist is the club of Tea, the whole team.

In the didactic books that capture the historical and social contribution of people in different areas, the presence of women is much lower. In the collection of Gabai comics to bring children closer to history, for example, the prominence of men predominates, and in the eleven copies of the Basque Collection with History, only one collects the story of a woman: Mary of Maeztu.Dos
thirds of the stories studied are written by men and the characters often reflect stereotypes (“decent, clean, organized, puppy, messy, dirty girls”), even in the illustrations (“from color to clothing”).

The research affirms that romantic love deserves a special section: these stories aimed at girls delve into the idealized image of love and into the cliche of the prince who saves the princess, “preventing in the future the maintenance of healthy and balanced relationships.” In short, these types of reports favor the normalization of relationships between toxic partners and male violence.

Do we want instrumental books or literature?Books predominate the
traditional family (in 95% of books), and if other family models appear, they are books that deal with the subject expressly (Mila bizi da). The same is true of the characters of race and culture that are not Western whites: they only have room in the books to work on diversity. Oihana Llorente tells us that stories that aim to work on specific topics have multiplied, and that it is a breakthrough, because it is important to have at hand these instruments for when you want to work in class, “but at the same time, they are often not particularly attractive from the literary point of view, and therefore, in addition to these stories, the stories that collect these more transversally themes are also important.” The key is knowing and cataloguing all that wealth well: “If you want to work on multiple family models, not only do you have to go to the instrumental story, Amets has two mothers to that, because a story has also been recommended that has nothing to do with history, but that has a certain presence on the subject (for example, because at some point a family with two mothers appears).”

Who is in charge of the library?In order to sort and catalog all that wealth well, update the one we have on
the shelves and bring what we consider interesting to the library, know how to choose and advise… we have to give the importance it deserves to the library, but the association has come to the conclusion that we do not take enough care of it. “It is the Department of Education itself that does not wager on libraries: before there was a library officer in all schools and in some places full-time, but this has been gradually disappearing. In this case, in Eguzkitza, the head of the library is also in charge of the dining room, so keep track of how much time you can spend on the library,” says Llorente. It also stresses that the maintenance of the library must involve the entire educational community.

The theme requires the involvement of parents and educators, as their role is fundamental in what the students will read, both in the choice and in the discussion of the views given by the chosen one. In response to the study questions, the faculty affirms that the main criterion of book selection, in a very high percentage, is the interest of the students (above the theme, the curriculum, etc. ), and when choosing the book, most teachers do not take into account the gender of the protagonist.

Llorente stresses the need to influence the education of educators: “Last year we finished the research and this year, with the conclusions obtained, we have directed the training with the teachers of all the public schools in Irun. It is often said that we have to wear purple glasses, but for that we need training, and that is why, by pulling out the conclusions of the research, we have given the teachers a number of criteria for them to be taken into account when choosing stories. We’ve been filling our suitcase with school books at school, first we analyze the books they have at school from a critical perspective, and then we teach them the stories and books of our suitcase.”

Momo, The Butterfly Ears, The Pirate Daniela, we can imagine what they have in this Tango Suitcase, if we look at the collection of stories that Katakrak has
produced with the help of the bookstore and the editorial. There are many stories that have been recommended in the guide of the Pare association: Pink monster, I would also like a mango, Arthur and Clementine, Butterfly ears, The median crab in the world, the princes also bid, the war does not stop, the mother has the world Hankaz gora, the pirate Daniela, Leotolde, Pippi to the sea, Momo, Marimatrac…

We've told Llorente to choose one and he talks about Tango, the wonderful story of two penguins who can't have children and who want a son, which has actually happened at the New York Zoo.

And he has made us a final note: in many languages there are many nice works; research also wants to be all that kindness that we have around us to translate a claim to the Basque. “My daughter, for example, reads the Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls collection, which counts in an excellent way biographies of significant women.”